


Safe to Dance Here

by MarikaFromCincy



Category: Bomb Girls, Call the Midwife
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-05
Updated: 2015-11-05
Packaged: 2018-04-30 03:34:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5148761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarikaFromCincy/pseuds/MarikaFromCincy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Patsy and Delia have their first experience at a gay club and meet a Canadian couple and their best friend, who convince Patsy to finally come out to Trixie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I went from watching season four of Call the Midwife right into a Bomb Girls re-watch and really wanted Patsy Mount and Betty McRae to meet somehow. So, I wrote this.

“Are you sure about this? What if somebody sees us?” Patsy asked the girl who was pulling her down the darkened downtown London street.

“Will you calm down, Pats,” Delia said, smiling up at her nervous girlfriend. She had been like this since they got on the bus back in Poplar. “We are too far away for any patients to see us. And even if anyone does, I think not telling is kind of the point.”

“How did you even hear about this place?” Patsy asked.

“There are more people like us in Poplar than you and Tony think,” Delia stated.

Patsy shuttered for a moment when Delia said his name. She had kept in contact with Tony Amos. Well, secret contact. As far as everyone knew in Poplar, he had been reformed and was the prefect father and husband. Patsy would get lunch with him about twice a month. He was the perfect father. He was trying to be the best husband to Marie he could be.

Patsy had felt an obligation to be friends with him. He figured her out quickly but didn’t say anything as he took the full force of Poplar’s hatred. He told her what she did to defend him was more than worthy of him keeping his mouth shut.

“Oh come off it. Relax. Anyway, The London has diversified a bit since you left to live in a convent,” Delia told her again.

“Fine, fine. I’m relaxed.”

“Good, because I think this is it,” Delia said slowly as she veered to the left, pulling Patsy behind her.

Patsy didn’t get a chance to see the name of the establishment but saw a poster beside the door that read “Special one night concert by Canadian songstress Kate Andrews.” Below was a photograph of a beautiful woman with a knowing smile and curly red hair flowing around her shoulders.

Patsy yelped as Delia’s quick pulling caused her to trip over the door frame into the bar. Delia helped steady her and smiled.

“Well, here we are,” Delia commented.

The two of them looked around. For a moment it seemed like every club they had been to near Poplar, just with more dramatic red lighting and better music.

Once Patsy looked closer, she realized most of the tables had either two men or two women at them. A few were holding hands and one bold couple was making out in one of the booths as if no one was watching. Patsy felt a boost of confident from their bravery and shamelessness.

“Find a table, will you? I’ll go order us drinks,” Patsy told Delia.

“Martinis a good start?”

“Certainly,” Patsy said as she walked toward the bar.

“What would you like, darling?” asked the suit-cladded woman bartender.

“Two Martinis, please,” Patsy stated, digging into her purse and putting double what the price would be in Poplar on the counter.

She took the two drinks and turned to find Delia. She had selected a high table near the stage, rather close to another table occupied by a brunette and a blonde, both seemingly in their 40s.

“You got a light,” the blonde was asking Delia when Patsy arrived at the table. “I lost mine at the airport.”

“I don’t but,” Delia said, perking up when Patsy and the drinks arrived at the table, “Patsy should.”

“Should what?” Patsy asked as she sat on the stool across from Delia.

“Have your lighter on you?” her girlfriend asked.

“Yes, of course,” Pasty said, quickly pulling it from her bag and handing it to the blonde with a smile.

The blonde lite her cigarette. “You need it before I give it back, Princess?” the blonde asked the brunette.

The brunette faux dramatically sighed and fidgeted before pulling a cigarette from her purse and letting the blonde lite it.

“Thanks, red,” the blonde said as she handed it back.

“Not a problem,” Patsy replied, unable to control her nerves as well as she would have liked.

The blonde chuckled slightly. The brunette gave her a sympathetic smile.

“She’s the nervous one,” Delia stated.

“Delia!” Patsy scolded.

“What? You are,” she replied.

“Oh pay it no mind, dear,” the brunette said kindly to Patsy, patting her on the shoulder. “This one was in your shoes too once upon a time,” she motioned across their table to the blonde. “Isn’t that right, Betty?”

“Sorry,” Betty said to Patsy. “I guess it’s been too long.”

Delia decided to take over the conversation, knowing Patsy had already shown more vulnerability than she liked to.

“Really? How long have you two been together?” Delia asked them, intrigued.

Betty chuckled again. “We ain’t together.”

“Then…why are you here?” Delia asked.

But before anyone could answer the record player stopped and an Italian looking man in a dark suit walked onto the stage and up to the microphone.

“Ladies and gentleman, I am very pleased to announce a special one night only performance by the fantastic, beautiful songstress who took a detour from her European tour to visit us tonight. All the way from Toronto, Canada, Miss Kate Andrews!”

Applause filled the bar. Patsy knew she had recognized the name when she past that poster, but once she saw the beautiful redhead in the white dress walk onto the stage joined by her muscular, handsome piano player, she remembered she had heard her records before. Delia had a few of them and lent them to Patsy. Every so often she as able to play them in between Trixie’s utterly mainstream British records.

The blonde seemed fixated with Kate Andrews and could not look away from the stage.

The brunette leaned closer to Patsy and Delia’s table. “They are together,” she explained. “I’m just a friend of theirs. Gladys,” she said holding out her hand.

“Patsy.”

“Delia.”

Gladys hopped over to the open stool at their table. Betty seemed that she would be a lost cause until Kate left the stage.

Delia still seemed astonished by the brunette. “You’re friends with Kate Andrews and her girlfriend?”

Gladys nodded, taking a sip of her champagne.

“Who’s the embarrassing one now?” Patsy shot at Delia, drawing a laugh from Gladys. “Sorry, she seems a bit star struck.”

Gladys and Patsy looked at Delia, who seemed equally fixated by Kate Andrews and Betty.

Gladys looked at Patsy with a smile. “I have grown a bit accustom to this over the years.”

“Are you a musician too?” Patsy asked her.

“Oh, no. I work for the Canadian government. I have just been friends with them for a very long time. Actually, since we were about your guys’ age,” Gladys asked. “We met through work, though.”

“Truly?” Patsy asked excited. She peered at how Betty was staring at Kate Andrews and hoped she and Delia would still look at each other the same way in 20 years.

Gladys nodded while lowering her glass. “Yes, at a munitions factory in Toronto during the war. You two seem like shoulder to the wheel types, what do you do?”

“Shoulder to the wheel?” Betty criticized. “We’re nearly 6,000 kilometers from home, Gladys. Leave it in Canada for once, will ya?”

“Oh watch your love and leave me alone, Betts,” Gladys shot back.

Betty’s attention was already turned back to the stage.

“Sorry, what was I saying? Oh yes, what do you kids do?” Gladys asked Patsy again.

“We met working as nurses at The London, a hospital on the other side of town.” Patsy smiled across the table at a still fixated Delia. She had forgotten how much she liked Kate Andrews. “She still works there. I’m a district nurse and midwife now, working for Nonnatus House in the East End.”

Patsy finished her martini. Gladys seemed to have some sort of elite status and with a wave of her hand both of their drinks had been replaced. Patsy looked down at it reluctantly at first.

“Oh come now, just drink it,” Gladys stated as she raised her glass for a toast.

Patsy half smiled and did the same. Everyone broke into applause again as Kate Andrews finished the song.

“Thank you,” she said into the microphone before stepping back to her glass of water.

“By golly, she is fantastic,” Delia said turning away from the stage and back toward Patsy, Gladys and her drink. She took a gulp.

Gladys nodded. “I’ve been listening to her sing for 20 years, since the first time she started singing on the floor of our bomb factory. I’ve been amazed ever since. That song was off her newest record.”

“I know,” Delia stated. “I took the bus to a record store near here to buy it.”

“You did?” Patsy asked. “Why haven’t I gotten to hear it yet?”

“Because you spend all your time in your room listening to Trixie’s terrible music,” Delia said, giggling.

Kate Andrews started to sing again and Delia’s attention was snapped away.

“Trixie?” Gladys inquired of Patsy.

“Oh god, it is not like that. She is my roommate at Nonnatus, the convent.”

Gladys had to laugh a bit. Patsy nodded in understanding. “What’s her thoughts about the two of you?”

Patsy blushed and nervously sipped her drink. “She doesn’t know.”

“Just roommates then, not friends?” Gladys asking encouragingly.

Patsy took a moment to size up the woman before answering her question. She was a proper sounding and seeming Canadian lady, a government worker. Patsy didn’t get the feeling from her that she did from Delia and Tony and most of the people in the bar.

But she was friends with Kate Andrews, the singer Delia had started liking so much because she had heard she was like them. It turned out she was and even had a girlfriend who was at her show too. As was this proper lady, Patsy found hard to understand. Well, maybe not hard to understand but hard to believe she could be real.

“No,” Patsy decided to admit. “We are friends. She is my best friend, actually.”

“And she does not know?” Gladys asked.

Patsy shook her head, looking down into her drink as she took a sip.

Betty looked over she shoulder. She hopped down from her stool and walked over to them. She stepped between Gladys and Patsy’s stools, putting her arm around Gladys’ shoulders. For the amount of confident and strength she exerted, Patsy figured she would be taller.

“You nervous about telling her, kid?” Betty asked her.

Patsy nodded. “Sometimes it seems like she already knows but other times it seems like she does not have the slightest clue. She’s very…”

“Girly,” Delia chimed in.

“Yes, girly. And she’s engaged to a cleric. There was one time when she said she didn’t have a problem but she and her fiancé agreed it was a sin.” Patsy quickly stopped talking, realizing she was beginning to ramble.

“‘The Bible also says to stone a man for working on Sundays’,” Betty said with a smirk. “You and your roommate work on Sundays?”

“Yes, all the time,” Patsy answered.

“Kate’s pianist, Leon, said that to her while we were all working on a Sunday back when she thought what we felt for each was a sin,” Betty stated.

“But, how does that help?” Patsy asked confused.

“If this girl is really your best friend,” Gladys began, “it should not matter to her. It might be the opposite of what she expects or exactly what she expects, but if she is truly your friend it will not make a difference.”

“You really think so?” Delia asked.

Gladys’ statement had turned her attention away from the stage.

Betty and Gladys smiled at each other.

“Well, tell ‘em the story, Princess,” Betty said to Gladys.

She smiled and turned to the young couple. “We were at a bar, similar to this one, in Toronto. Leon’s band was playing and he asked Kate to sing with them. I was standing beside  
Betty and I could just tell by the way she was looking at her and how she spoke about her. Nobody else would have picked up on it, but nobody knew her like I did.”

“I told you, Pats. I think she already knows. Nobody who is that skilled at flirting can be that blind,” Delia said.

“I guess you’re right,” Patsy told Delia.

Applause interrupted their conversation again as Kate finished her song.

“I am going to slow it down a bit for this next one,” Kate Andrews said into the microphone. “This song is for anyone here forced to hide from the outside world. And to celebrate this safe place, I want to invite my special someone onto the stage.”

Betty went red as Kate locked eyes with her. She staggered up to the stage and let Kate pull her up. A cheer, which started with Gladys, spread across the bar.

Kate started to sing and Delia excited jumps down from her stool.

“Waltz with me?” Delia asked as she held her hand out to Patsy.

Patsy smiled with only half her mouth and let Delia led her to small dance floor in front of the stage. They clasped hands and put the others around each others’ waists.

“I told you there had to be somewhere,” Delia said up to Patsy with a smile.

“I’m glad you found it.”

They waltzed, slowly and happily as Kate Andrews and Betty did the same before the microphone onstage.

“I love you,” Patsy whispered down to Delia after a moment or so of silence.

“I love you, too,” Delia answered.

Patsy had to take a moment to remind herself where she was and that it was alright. When her racing mind was finally convinced, she bent down and kissed Delia.

Once she pulled away, Delia gazed up at her with a pleased face.

“We should start coming here regularly,” she said.

“I think I would enjoy that.”

Once Kate Andrews was done singing for the night, she, Betty and Gladys spent only a short amount of time at the table. Delia was too star struck to speak until the last few minutes. Betty gave them free tickets to Kate’s actually concert in London that would be happening in a few weeks.

The three of them had to leave shortly after midnight to catch a train to Belfast for Kate’s next show. Patsy and Delia jumped on the last bus back to Poplar.

Patsy slipped back into her room at Nonnatus shortly after 1 a.m.

“And where have you been until such a late hour?” asked Trixie, who was still awake with a drink on the nightstand and a magazine in front of her.

“Out with…Delia,” Patsy answered nervously.

Trixie nodded, took a sip of her drink and seemed to turn her attention back to her magazine.

Patsy reached her bed and sat down, facing her roommate, co-worker and best friend.

“Trixie, can I tell you something?” She asked nervously.

Trixie peered at her in wonder. “Oh, this sound exciting.” She closed her magazine, threw it aside and turned to face Patsy. “Well spill, Patsy?”

“It is about me and Delia,” she began, not sure what to say next. “I’m…we’re…”

Trixie gave her a warm smile as if she was encouraging her to continue.

“She is more than just my friend. We are together. As in dating,” Patsy said.

As soon as the words left her lips, she found herself in a barely controllable panic. Surely, Trixie would hate her, call her a sinner or turn her into the police. She could end up in prison. Trixie had told her about the local woman’s prison, it sounded like a horrible place. She couldn’t survive there. And she would never get to see Delia again. Would there even be a point to surviving?

Trixie sighed and laughed. “Nurse Mount, Were you nervous about that? You know I have seen you and Delia together a lot. I was almost certain you loved her.”

“Are we that obvious?” Patsy asked nervously.

“To the trained eyes, meaning me, yes. But to those of lesser experience, Barbara and the nuns for example, no one would have noticed,” Trixie said with a smile.

Patsy gave a small laugh

“Why tonight of all nights did you decide to tell me?” Trixie asked.

“Delia found a bar, one that is friendly to people like us in downtown London. This Canadian singer, Kate Andrews, was there. She is like us too and we conversed with her girlfriend and best friend. They sort of encouraged me to tell other people,” Patsy explained shyly.

“Well I have drug the two of you to enough bars in Poplar, you should force me to this London place sometime,” Trixie said.

“They actually gave us free tickets to Kate Andrews’ next show in London in a few weeks. We could go before if you would like to come along and see all the action first hand.”

“Oh, I would love to,” Trixie said with a big smile.

Patsy got ready for bed. She was about to turn off the light when she felt Trixie gazing at her.

“What?” she asked.

“I’m so excited to meet Delia again,” Trixie told her grinning.

“What do you mean again?”

“I met her as your friend, silly. Now I get to meet her as your lady. I have been waiting for the day when I could be your intimidating friend to whoever you started dating,” Trixie said exciting.

“There is no need for that, Trixie,” Patsy said knowing it wouldn’t make a difference. “We have been dating for while now.”

Patsy reached over and turned off the lamp.

“Oh you are telling me all about this in the morning,” Trixie said into the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trixie presses Patsy and Delia for information about their relationship and they spend more time with Canadian singer Kate Andrews after her girlfriend, Betty, invites them to the after party of her London show.

“About time you joined us,” Trixie said before Patsy was even fully in the door to their room.

She thought she heard Kate Andrews’ voice coming from the record player. Or maybe it was Billie Holiday? No, it was the record Kate Andrews did singing all Billie Holiday songs. Patsy had actually gotten a chance to listen to that one.

“Well come now, will you?” Trixie said as she put a drink in Patsy’s hand, took off her hat and tossed it over to her bed.

“Aye!” Delia exclaimed as it hit her in the chest.

Patsy had been so ambushed by Trixie she hadn’t even noticed Delia was there.

“What are you doing here already?” Patsy asked her. They had plans to go out that night but Patsy thought it wasn’t for a few more hours. She had planned to take a nap first.

“I was kidnapped,” Delia stated over her drink.

“Oh don’t be dramatic,” Trixie shot at her. “It was not a kidnapping.”

“I was walking from the Nurses’ Home to the grocer,” Delia told Patsy. “And she yanked my arm and drug me over here against my will.”

Patsy laughed. “Intimidating,” She added with a nod to Trixie.

“Exactly right,” she replied. “And we never got to have that chat over the weekend, so I thought we should have it now,” Trixie said with a smile at Patsy then at Delia.

Patsy sighed. She pulled off her sweater, undid the first button of her uniform and sat on her bed beside Delia.

“What chat is this?” Delia asked, her voice growing higher with nerves as Patsy left her side.

She’d only forgotten her drink on the dresser and quickly returned.

“She didn’t tell you?” Patsy asked Delia.

“No, I told you it was a kidnapping,” Delia repeated.

“Remember she said she had meet you again and question you about your intentions,” Patsy told her.

She had only seen Delia once since their adventure to downtown London and evening with Kate Andrews, her girlfriend and their best friend.

“Oh good, you brought me home to meet the family and I didn’t even get time to prepare,” Delia teased her.

“She caught me off guard here, too,” Patsy replied.

“Less taking about me and more talking to me,” Trixie said with the same excited smile she had the other night.

“Yes, Trixie. What would you like to know?” Patsy asked.

“Let’s start with the basics, shall we?” Trixie said finishing off her drink and going to pour another. “How did you two meet?” She asked smiling over her shoulder at them.

“I’ve told you that story, Trixie,” Patsy informed her.

“The real version?” she added.

Patsy started to blush. Delia noticed. She also noticed she had her left hand behind her back, supporting herself. Delia reached over and entwined her fingers with Pasty’s. The blush got worse despite their hands being out of Trixie’s view.

“It was about two and half years ago,” Delia started. “My ambulance partner and I had brought in this chap from a motorcycle accident. He’d hit some water on the road and went slamming into a house. He busted up almost everything.”

She paused a moment for Patsy to tell the next part. Delia clenched her hand tighter but she still didn’t say anything.

“Once we got him to The London,” Delia continued herself, “the doctors said he needed surgery. It was all pretty chaotic when we arrived and everyone was trying to stable him in the emergency room. I’d got myself caked in all kinds of blood.”

“I think most of that was from the scene, actually,” Patsy chimed in. “The gurney was not nearly as much of a mess as you were.”

“Either way, I got directed to the wash basins by some bossy tall nurse from male surgerical," Delia said with a smirk.

“I was not meaning to be bossy,” Patsy said in her defense.

“Yes, you were!” Delia said hitting her on the arm. “That was why I liked you so much. You had that much confidence to bossing around the other nurses, some of the doctors, me. I knew I had to get to know you, that you might be like me. But even if you weren’t I wouldn’t have minded. I at least had to be your friend.”

“And you realized this all at the wash basin?” Trixie questioned.

“Not as romantic as you hoped?” Delia asked.

“Oh gosh, no. That is so…something I would have expected from you two,” she answered. “Is that what you were thinking too?” Trixie directed Patsy.

She didn’t answer at first. Delia knew that look on her face.

“Can I tell her?” Delia asked Pasty softly.

Patsy nodded as she squeezed her hand.

“Was it the kitchen fire or the gas explosion?” Delia asked.

“The construction accident,” Patsy said.

“Right,” Delia said turning her attention to Trixie. “It was about three weeks later when I brought in some men from a construction accident. It was right at the end of my shift and Patsy’s. I suggested we get some tea together at a place nearby.”

“It was after she ordered her tea,” Patsy said quietly looking down at the floor. “It all came together for me in that moment. I’d suddenly realized why I had been hoping she would show up every night since the motorcycle accident,” Patsy looked up at her girlfriend. "I knew I wanted to be with her in a different way than I had ever felt about anyone.“

Trixie let out some sort of excited squeal-grasp. Delia barely stifled a laugh.

“Oh don’t laugh at me,” Trixie fired at Delia. “That was the cutest thing you have ever said,” Trixie told Patsy, who blushed again.

Delia looked at Patsy and laughed as she turned to Trixie. “You know she doesn’t much fancy sharing?”

“Of course, darling. That is why you are here. We have known each other for what now, Patsy? Almost a year. And she only told me about you four days ago,” Trixie stated.

“You met her,” Patsy said trying to defend herself. “Beside after everything that happened with the Amos’ and you and Tom’s back and forth I couldn’t think of a good time to tell you.”

“You should have told me when Tony Amos was arrested. You handled that mostly by yourself. I could have helped,” Trixie said kindly.

Patsy fidgeted awkwardly. “It was fine. I was able to handle it,” she said, the strong front she was usually able to put up failing her.

Delia leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

“But all the hateful things that everyone was saying?” Trixie stated.

She paused with a gasp. Patsy looked up at her cautiously. Delia did with an eyebrow raised in question.

“My god, Sister Winifred! What she said at dinner that– Well, I shouldn’t call a nun that but you know what I mean,” Trixie streamed, taking an angry sip of her drink.

There was a knock on the door. Patsy jumped. Delia quickly removed her hand from Patsy’s and moved over a bit. Trixie glanced at them before looking at the door.

“Come in,” she said cheerfully.

“Sorry, can I join you?” Barbara asked as she leaned around the door. She was still dressed in her uniform and looked like she just arrived home.

Trixie nodded as if she was about to start laughing. “Avoiding Nurse Crane, are you?”

“No,” Barbara stated, then seemed to fold into herself. “It is only that I would rather spend time here.”

“Well, you are more than welcome to stay,” Trixie said getting up to refill her drink and fill a glass with the weak wine for Barbara. “It is not like we were discussing anything of importance.”

“Not at all,” Delia added.

Trixie took control of the conversation again, complaining about something Tom had done. Patsy excused herself to the restroom. Delia felt the urge the follow her as soon as she left her side but she fought it.

“Ah,” Trixie exclaimed. “Could we switch up the music, Delia?”

Delia nodded and she walked over to the record player. Delia assumed Trixie might ask. The conversation was turning a little too light-hearted for Kate Andrews singing Billie Holiday.

“You can do the same singer. I like her, but does she have anything a little more upbeat?” Trixie asked.

“She does. I think I lent them to Patsy,” Delia said as she searched through the stack of records.

“Who is this?” Barbara asked. “I don’t think I have heard her before.”

“Oh just some Canadian singer Delia introduced to Patsy,” Trixie said with a knowing tone.

Delia looked over at her with a looked of amusement and shock at Trixie. “Her name’s Kate Andrews,” Delia answered, hoping Barbara didn’t notice her and Trixie’s exchange.

Delia found the two records she was looking for. She looked between “Room 10” and “Tonight with my Friend” for a moment and then chose the latter.

Patsy hadn’t returned after the second song and Delia figured it was time for her to go look for her.

“Pats?” Delia said to the closed restroom door. When she didn’t answer, Delia slowly pushed the door open.

Patsy was standing by the sink and she turned slowly towards her, with her hands clenching the sides of her uniform.

“I don’t know if I can do this, Delia,” Patsy chocked out and Delia could hear the tears in her voice.

“It’s not as easy as it seemed it would be when we were in that bar, is it?” Delia offered up.

“But, you’re handling it fine,” Patsy stated through more almost tears.

“Oh, Pats. Don’t do that,” Delia said as she pushed the door shut behind her.

Delia got frustrated for a second that not even this door had a lock. She took the nearby chair and wedged it under the doorknob.

She walked over to her girlfriend and put her arms around her. Delia held her tightly as Patsy leaned down far enough to rest her head on her shoulder.

“I don’t know how I’m handling it,” Delia said softly.

“But, you’re not afraid,” Patsy said into her shoulder.

“No, I’m not. I’m sick of being afraid. I don’t want to hide or lie or pretend anymore,” Delia stated passionate.

“Delia,” Patsy whispered concerned as she lifted her head from her shoulder and looked into her eyes.

“Yes, I know how dangerous that is. And I’m well aware the only reason I haven’t been locked up yet is because of you,” Delia told her. “You’ve kept me smart and safe.”

Patsy smiled down at her and Delia saw that she had almost drawn her back across the hall.

“But here with friends, with people we can trust, you don’t need to be so afraid,” Delia whispered kindly.

Patsy smiled again, knowing she was right. Delia reached up and kissed her on the lips.

“You know what we are going to do now?” Delia asked as she pulled away.

“Oh, do tell,” Patsy replied.

“We are going to walk back into your room just like how we walked into the bar. Not worried and up for anything,” Delia stated excited as she pulled Patsy toward the door.

“Any chance there is another surprise Kate Andrews concert in my room?” Patsy joked as Delia removed the chair.

“Only a record, but we only got two more days,” Delia replied.

They walked side by side into the room and sat beside each other on Patsy’s bed. They didn’t touch but they also didn’t act like they were only friends.

The day of Kate Andrews’ London concert, Patsy and Delia walked down the same darkened London street as they had a few weeks ago, but this time Trixie was beside them.

They had been spending a lot of time with Trixie since that night of Delia’s “kidnapping.” Patsy had joked about her being the third wheel but had later made sure she was actually OK with it because they were making her an accessory to a crime.

Trixie said she didn’t mind. She had joked that she clearly couldn’t ask her cleric fiancé to come along. She had later made sure Patsy knew she didn’t believe anything the church or even the medical texts said about what her and Delia were doing. Trixie had even expressed her doubts of it she could be married to someone who thought her best friend was a sinner for something that was out of her control. Patsy hated that she might be coming between Trixie and Tom, but she knew she wasn’t the only thing.

“Ow, how intriguing,” Trixie said as they entered the bar.

Delia sent Trixie and Patsy off to find a table as she went to get drinks this time.

“Am I the only person not like you two in here?” Trixie asked once they were seated.

Patsy had instinctively chosen the same table as last time. She scanned the bar, Trixie seemed to be doing the same.

“I’m not sure, possibly,” Patsy told her. “Would it be a problem if you were?”

“Oh no, just curious,” Trixie said smiling at her from across the table. “You know, I am really pleased you told me about you and Delia.”

Patsy returned her smile. “I am too.”

An hour or so later, the three of them were walking to the concert hall.

“Bloody hell, these are front row seats!” Delia exclaimed as she pulled the three tickets out of the envelope in her bag.

“What?” Patsy asked peering over Delia’s shoulder.

“Guess we made a good impression,” Delia replied.

Trixie shock her head and sighed. “You two didn’t look at the tickets when they gave them to you?”

Delia shrugged. “I was nearly too starstruck to speak.”

Patsy figured she should reply with the same level of honest. “All three of them are very attractive. I was distracted.”

Delia nodded in agreement. Trixie just laughed.

They arrived at the hall and were ushered to the front row. Kate Andrews wasn’t on stage yet but all the house lights were already off.

“Glad you made it,” Betty leaned over and said to Patsy as she, Delia and Trixie sat beside them.

Before Patsy could even reply Delia was leaning over her thanking Kate Andrews’ girlfriend for their fantastic seats.

“You don’t get to be backstage?” Patsy asked her.

Betty shook her head. “Kate likes havin’ someone to sing to.”

“Oh,” Trixie said below her breath. It seemed to have just clicked with her who this blonde woman was.

“Sorry, sorry,” the three of them heard coming from the end of the front row.

Gladys made her way to the empty seat beside Betty.

“Important call, Princess?” Betty asked.

Gladys sighed. “More so than I had been hoping for. I might not be able to stay for the whole tour.”

“Aw, really?” Betty asked.

Gladys shrugged. “But that is not important right now.” She leaned forward and smiled. “Patsy and Delia, it is nice to see you again.”

“You too,” Delia answered.

“And your third would be…?” Gladys asked, leaning forward further.

“Trixie,” she said with a small wave. “I’m a friend of theirs.”

“Well it is nice to meet you, Trixie,” Gladys said giving a quick knowing smile to Patsy and Delia. “I’m Gladys.”

“I know,” Trixie told her. “I’m assuming you have heard as much about me as I have about you?”

“A rather fair assessment, but I’m sure you have heard more about Betty and Kate,” Gladys replied.

Trixie laughed. “I have. Actually, I’m not sure if I have stopped hearing Kate for the last few weeks.”

“You kept telling us to play her records after you said you liked her,” Delia shot at Trixie.

Gladys warmly laughed at them, but their conversation was silenced when all the lights went off.

“Glad you did it, kid,” Betty leaned over and whispered to Patsy.

“Thank you for the encourage,” Patsy said back, just in control of her nerves.

Betty smiled, pleased that she was able to help. “We’re havin’ a party back at the hotel after this. Ya’ll should came.”

“Thank you. We will,” Patsy answered for everyone. She knew Delia would give anything to spend more time with Kate Andrews and her girlfriend. And Trixie was never one to pass up a party.

One light turned on above them and illuminated Kate Andrews at the microphone. She started to sing. Patsy and Delia were just as transfixed as they were the first time they heard her live. Betty would have liked to admit that she wasn’t that transfixed, but Kate singing didn’t make her feel any different than it did more than 20 years when she was a nervous, nearly fired tenderfoot who started signing on the VicMu floor.

She had loved her then. The only difference now was that she loved her more and knew she loved her back. Kate made eye contact with her. Betty nodded. It was a good choice to start with “Little White House.” It was one of the most upbeat ones that got everyone excited right out of the gate. After the concert, the three London nurses walked the streets to the hotel address Patsy had been given by Betty.

“The Ritz?” Trixie questioned after Patsy read off the address. “Well they sure are fancy. This is all just a fluke, right? You two don’t really have a lot of celebrity friends that you have never told me about.”

Patsy and Delia both looked at each other and raised their eyebrows.

“Perhaps,” Patsy answered with a smirk.

“Maybe we have loads of famous Canadian friends,” Delia added.

“Haha, girls,” Trixie replied.

They arrived at the five-star hotel. Patsy lead them to the elevator, up to the floor and to the room number Betty had given her.

She knocked on the door and could already hear music coming from inside.

Betty pulled the door opened as she took a swing of her beer. “London kids” she said excited. “Come on in. Drinks are by the sink,” she said as she stepped aside.

“My lord, this is nice,” Trixie exclaimed as the three of them walk to the sink in the largest, nicest hotel room they had ever been in.

The main room was filled with people dancing before a band made up of three teenaged to early twenties boys.

Delia quickly pulled Patsy over to the dancers as soon as their drinks were in hand. The two of them started dancing with everyone else and ended up beside Betty and Kate Andrews.

“Nice to see you two again,” Kate told them before Betty twirled her back around.

“I promise we are much more happy to be seeing you again. You were fantastic tonight,” Delia said, nearly shouting over the music.

“Oh thank you,” Kate told her as they all continued to dance.

Betty laughed. Kate twirled her around and then kissed her.

“What have I done now?” Kate asked her.

“Almost 20 years, babe, and you still take complaints the same way,” Betty informed her.

Kate Andrews only shrugged and turned slightly turning her and Betty’s and Patsy and Delia’s dancing into more of a group dance.

The four of them dance together and happily sipped their drinks until the band finished their song.

“And for this next song we’d like to bring up the beautiful Miss Kate Andrews,” the lanky boy, who looked a lot like Kate’s piano player Leon, said into the microphone with a confident smile as he pointed at her.

Everyone in the hotel room grew quite.

“I’m not sure if they are good enough yet,” Kate said to Betty, but loud enough for everyone to hear.

“We plenty good, Miss Andrews,” said the boy on the guitar, who was older than the other two.

“Skip’s right, Kate,” a sexy blonde chimed in, playing along with the joke only a few were picking up on.

“You got anything to contribute, Eddie?” Betty asked the third, seemingly youngest boy on the saxophone.

“My mom said I had to listen to what you and Kate said,” he replied.

“That Sheila has always been smart,” Betty pointed out to Kate with a smile.

“Quit delaying the party and just get up here, Aunt Kate,” the lanky boy said.

Kate gave a small laugh. “Fine then, Mr. Riley Jr. Move over to back up vocals,” Kate said as she walked over to the microphone.

They started performing an older song of Kate’s and everyone went right back into dancing.

Gladys and Leon danced over to Patsy, Delia and Betty followed by then Italian man who had introduced Kate at her surprise London concert and the sexy blonde woman, who had scars all over her face.

“We’ve you two been?” Betty asked the new couple.

“Oh wouldn’t you like to know,” the sexy woman shot back.

“That the you?” the Italian man asked Gladys motioning toward the sink. Gladys nodded to them.

“Well she ain’t doing any good over there, is she?” the sexy woman said with a smile at him.

They jolted over and within a minute Trixie was on the dance floor between them.

Trixie looked over at Patsy with an amused and surprised smile on her face. Patsy also didn’t understand how this had all happened, how she nervously walked, well tripped, into a London bar and ended up befriending a Canadian celebrity, which had lead her to being at an after show party at one of the nicest hotels in London.

Once the song ended, Kate jumped back in the dancing beside Betty. Her entrance back into, whatever shape they had become, set Trixie stumbling backwards.

“You all right, ma'am?” Leon said politely as she caught Trixie around the waist.

She looked at his hands then his face and raised her eyebrows with a smirk.

“Hope I didn’t just anger your fellow,” Leon replied after he removed his hands.

Trixie shock her head. “Oh he is not here. He’s a cleric,” she answered.

“Not sure if that is enough of a reason, miss,” Leon answered. “I’m a preacher myself.”

“And you are here?” Trixie questions with an air of equal criticism and wonder.

“Oh not in the mood for religion talk,” Kate announced as she grabbed Betty’s hand and started pulling her away from the dance floor.

“Wait, Kate,” Betty called motioning over her shoulder.

“Of course,” she answered with a grin. “Save the children!”

Betty hopped back into the dance floor. Betty grabbed one of Patsy’s and one of Delia’s hands turning their attention away from dancing and each other.

“Rule number one ,” Betty said as she pulled them toward the bedroom. “Avoid religion at all cost.”

Delia laughed while shooting a glance at Patsy.

“I believe I already broke that,” Patsy told Betty as she pulled them into the bedroom. “I live in a convent.”

“Ouch,” she said releasing both their hands and clenching her chest. “And I thought this one and Leon being religious was difficult.”

“I haven’t been religious in a long while,” answered Kate, who was sprawled over one of the couches in the room.

Betty motioned for Patsy and Delia to sit on the other as she plopped down beside Kate Andrews. They moved until Kate was sitting beside Betty, with her legs draped over hers and her arm around her shoulder. Kate leaned forward and kissed Betty before she leaned back against the armrest.

Patsy and Delia sat side-by-side on the adjacent couch, publicly holding hands being all they had the confidence for.

Kate could see the nerves seeping into the other redhead’s face. She wanted to say something to her because she remained her so much of a young Betty. But that fact also remained her to leave her alone. Kate turned her attention to the brunette.

“You didn’t expect it to be real, did you?” Kate asked her.

Kate hoped she would answer truthfully. It was only the four of them in the room, Betty had closed the door almost all the way. The party continued outside without noticing their absence.

“I guess not,” Delia answered. “I mean, I had heard rumors and I hoped they were true but deep down I always figured they couldn’t be. I’ve liked you so much for so long and it always just seemed like a fantasy to think you could actually be like me, like us,” Delia said, motioning to Patsy.

“How’d ya hear she was like you?” Betty asked.

Delia swallowed her nerves. Patsy blushed.

“Aye, no,” Betty said with a smile. “We ain’t tryin’ to get ya in terrible, I’m just curious.”

“I live in the Nurses’ Home for our local hospital. There a lot of girls. A few are fans of yours and I just happened to hear it one night,” Delia stated.

“Then she told me,” Patsy stated.

“It is not as big of a deal in Toronto?” Delia asked.

“Not so much anymore,” Kate relied with an encouraging smile.

“Well, you’re a pretty big star now,” Betty pointed out.

“There used to be a lot of problems,” Kate started.

In the other room, a winded Trixie was forced to excuse herself from the Italian man and the scarred woman. They were skilled dancers and Trixie wasn’t as conditioned as she used to be. Tom didn’t dance.

Trixie was mixing herself a drink when the posh Canadian woman from the concert come up beside her and started doing the same.

Trixie tried to think of something to say but was coming up blank, a rarity for her, but she didn’t seem to have anything in common with this woman.

“So how long have you known about them?” Gladys asked Trixie. “Patsy and Delia.”

Trixie finished making her drink and smirked over at Gladys as she took her first sip. “Since the night you met them. That was when Patsy told me,” she answered.

“Oh, come now. You hadn’t already worked it out?” Gladys questioned as she finished making her drink.

They both leaned backwards on the sink/bar facing the dance floor.

Trixie awkwardly laughed and uncomfortably shifted.

Gladys picked up on it and answered first. “I had it all worked out about a week before Betty just told me. It was silly, really. It so easy for me to spot and I had already told her I didn’t care.”

Trixie chocked on the sip of her drink.

“Not so for you, I’m assuming?” Gladys questioned.

“I wish it was, but it seems I am not nearly as understanding of a friend as you,” Trixie said with a hint of angry, all directed as herself, in her voice.

“Oh darling, it had nothing to do with your own perception skills,” Gladys reassured her.

Trixie sighed sadly. “But I think it does. If I had just realized it before or during or bloody hell even shortly after the Amos baby I could have made it so much better for her.”

“Amos baby?” Gladys questioned.

“We’re midwives in the East End,” Trixie explained. “Shortly before the Amos’ had their first child, Tony, the husband, was arrested for…oh what do they call it?”

“Gross indecency,” Gladys answered. She had called her family’s lawyer friend three times to ask him to help someone get off on that charge. Once for Betty, once for Kate and once for a young friend of hers from the VicMu days. He was a good lawyer and she had an important enough name. Luckily, all the charges were dropped.

“Yes that,” Trixie replied rolling her eyes in disgust. “Poplar isn’t that small but when something big happens it seems to shrink. Everyone found out and everyone was so hateful.”

Trixie paused for a moment. She was remembering something, but was unsure if she wanted to voice it. For some reason she felt she could trust this posh stranger.

“She stood up to the whole community center,” Trixie stated. She had always found that moment strange, sure Patsy was forceful with patients sometimes but the nurses usually kept their mouths shut when it came to religion.

“The community you live in, the East End, it is doesn’t sound very accepting,” Gladys said like a question.

“Poplar? Oh no, not at all.”

“Well, is everyone you work with safe at least?” Gladys asked.

Trixie sighed again. She had been trying to work that out since she first saw Patsy after she told her. She was packing up for bag for the day standing beside Sister Evangelina and Nurse Krane.

“I hope so. There is only one person I am concerned about. She said some not so nice things when Mr. Amos was arrested,” Trixie stated.

Gladys seemed to be hit by a memory and smiled. “We had someone like that at the factory where we all used to work. But one day, Betty slapped him around and he never said anything after that.”

Trixie laughed. “I’m probably going to hell for saying I have felt like doing the same.”

“Oh, I think slapping a jerk is excusable,” Gladys said, smiling over her drink.

“She is a nun,” Trixie deadpaned.

Gladys nearly spat out her drink. “I forgot they said you girls work with nuns. How does she handle that?” Gladys asked.

Trixie shrugged. “You probably haven’t seen it, but Patsy is rather tough most of the time. This nervousness and softness only appears when Delia is around.”

Gladys laughed and nodded in agreement. “I have seen it,” she stated. “It has just been about 20 years.”

Back in the bedroom, Delia and Patsy sat fixated on their couch as Kate and Betty answered their questions.

Every so often Kate would mention a song title and Delia would go into a moment-long freak out.

“But where do you guys…I mean how did you find a place where you could really be together?” Patsy finally got out. She knew her face had to be as red as could be, but she also knew Delia wanted that answer. She had to ask.

“Tangiers?” Kate offered. “It was a bar in Toronto, a lot like the one in London.”

“We never did anything there,” Betty shot back.

Kate grinned. “Well, you tried.”

Betty groaned and rolled her eyes.

“I’m saying we could have done more there if I hadn’t been so naive,” Kate said.

“‘Sides that I don’t think there was anywhere until we got the first house,” Betty said to Kate.

“Well, the boarding house,” Kate said. “We got away with some stuff there.”

“Yeah, but that was after I got out of prison. I wasn’t even livin’ there,” Betty stated.

“Prison?” Delia exclaimed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to blurt.”

“Too many drinks, Deels?” Patsy asked with a smirk.

She only shrugged.

“Listen to ‘Take the Fall’ and 'Alley Alone’ more closely,” Kate told them with a cheeky grin.

Patsy was trying to recall those songs.

“Bloody hell! You’re the girl– the heroics–the,” Delia stammered.

Delia’s mouth dropped opened. 'Take the Fall’ was one of her favorites and she knew every word. Patsy noticed her expression and raised an eyebrow as Betty laughed.

“You got to stop doin’ that to the fans, Kate,” Betty told her. “You know how much trouble we are going to get in if you kill a kid with excitement?”

“I think you are about to find out,” Pasty stated, turning from Delia to Betty a laugh.

Once Delia recovered, she and Kate started deconstructing the words and meaning to 'Take the Fall.’

“I’m going to to out for smoke,” Betty stated getting off the couch. “You wanna come, red?” She asked Pasty.

“Why not?” she answered as she followed her to the balcony off the bedroom.

Betty took out two cigarettes once they were outside. She lite Patsy’s first, then her own and leaned against the railing.

They both stated down into the darkened London streets.

“So you bought a house?” Patsy asked Betty. “So that you could be together?”

Betty exhaled her smoke. “I bought it for Kate. We weren’t really together at the time, but we both needed a steady place of our own.”

“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t live…communally,” Patsy said, deciding it was vague enough to include the camp without her having to explain. “I haven’t really minded the hiding and the caution but Delia’s always said I handle it better than she does.”

“You should get a place,” Betty told her with a smile. “You’ve got no idea how nice it will be. I still get astounded sometimes that we can do whatever we want when we lock the door. And we’re on our fourth house,” Betty stated.

Patsy understand why Delia was so starstruck by Kate and why she wanted to talk to her about her music so much, but Patsy liked this even more. Talking to Betty was like glimpse into her future where all her fantasies could be true.

“Why have you been so kind to us?” Patsy asked her after a moment of silence.

Betty chuckled. “I haven’t been that nice. Kate’s the nice one.”

A smile spread across Patsy’s face. “So is Delia.”

Betty nodded in understanding. They both smoked silently for a moment.

Then Betty answered , as if she just needed the time to think.

“We seem to do this a lot,” Betty began. “We become friend with fans like us. Kate wants us to be role models, to give people someone to look up to. 'Cause their ain’t many others.”

Patsy nodded in agreement, she understood perfectly.

“I never thought I’d be in this position,” Betty admitted. “I didn’t think I’d ever be someone people would look up to, then Kate started calling me a hero. After a while, we just stopped hiding and ended up meeting people like you and your girl all over.”

Patsy wanted to stop hiding so badly, more for Delia than herself.

“How did you do it safely?” She asked.

“I don’t think we have. We both got arrested after a concert in America once,” Betty added with a sad laugh. “It almost got me sent back to prison. Truth? I wouldn’t have minded. Somebody has to stand up and show people they ain’t alone.”

Patsy chocked up a bit. Somehow Betty was both everything she wanted to be and a symbol of everything she was still afraid to embrace about herself.

Betty stood up from the railing and held her hands in front of her. “Don’t start crying, red,” Betty told her biting her lower lip. “I can’t handle pretty ladies crying. It makes me do the same.”

“I’m sorry,” Patsy said trying to shake her tough front into place. “I just–I agree with Kate. You are a hero.”

“Thanks kid,” she replied warmly.

On the bus back to Poplar, Patsy sat happily beside Delia and Trixie. Patsy reached into her pocket to make sure the scrap of paper was still there. It was. Betty had asked for a phone number for her and Delia so she and Kate could find them again the next time they were in London. Betty had scribbled down the address to their house in Canada and given it to Patsy so they could write if they wanted to.

The bus stopped near The London. Delia stood to get off.

“I’ll come with you,” Patsy stated. “I’ll be home shortly,” she told Trixie.

“Don’t be too late,” Trixie said with an amused smile.

Patsy and Delia stood beside the entrance to the Nurses’ Home, the lights from the sign buzzing loudly as they shined over the street.

They had their hands low at their sides as they subtly held each other’s.

“We should get a flat,” Patsy stated.

“Really?” Delia asked surprised.

Patsy nodded. She glanced around to see the street was empty.

“I love you, Delia,” she stated. “I want to be able to tell you…and show you…”

“Aw,” Delia accidentally exclaimed at how red Patsy’s face was.

Patsy nervously smiled. “…whenever I like without the fear of others or nuns or even Trixie interrupting us. I want a place where it is just you and me and we can just be ourselves.”

Delia stood on her toes and kissed Patsy. She kissed her back passionately. Her mind wanted her to jolt away when she remembered she was on a Poplar street. But, it was dark and late and she part of her wanted to be brave like Kate Andrews and Betty.

Eventually, she slowly pulled away.

“Meet me at the cafe tomorrow?” Delia suggested. “I’ll bring the flat ads from the newspapers.”

“Sounds like an excellent plan,” Patsy said with a smile.

“Good night, Pats,” she said as she walked toward the stairs up to the Nurses’ Home.

“Good night, Delia,” Patsy replied as she walked away, slowly pulling their hands apart.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trixie is struggling to reach out to Patsy after Delia’s accident, but she finds some help when the Kate Andrews Tour makes another stop in London.

“Good. That all you got? Harder. Damn! There you go,” the Italian man said with every punch Betty landed on the pad he was holding in front of himself.

Kate had expected to find Betty training with Marco, when she woke up alone in their room down the hall and found a note that read “training and travel plans.”

This hotel in Bristol was smaller than they usually went nowadays. Betty and Marco were taking up most of the main room. Kate peered into the bedroom, expecting to find the travel plans part of the morning activities.

“Yes, Brussels,” Vera said into the phone. She was tapping her pen against the notepad on her knees. She smiled up at Kate when she walked into the room. “We just need to be there by the 19th.”

She started writing something on the pad. “Yes that would work. How many does a car hold?”

She nodded and then placed her hand over the receiver. “Is Gladys going to be with us before the 17th?”

She didn’t give Kate a chance to answer.

“Just to be safe, let’s book the whole car,” she said into the phone. “Put it under Moretti-Burr Entertainment. Thank you.”

“Hello, Sweetie,” she said to Kate. “The train to Brussels is booked.”

“We going straight there?” Marco asked as he slipped his arm out of the pad and entered the bedroom. Betty was right behind him, removing her gloves with her teeth.

Vera shook her head. “We have about a day or so of free time in London.”

“Enough time for something?” Kate asked.

“It would be short notice, but we could probably find something,” Vera said reassuringly.

“I’m sure that bar would be happy to have you back,” Marco chimed in.

“Would that be all right?” Kate asked Betty. “I know you wanted to have a rematch with the girls from the base team.”

Betty shook her head. “Nah, it’s fine. I don’t think they are there right now anyway. You should do the bar again. We could check in on those kids from east London, invite them to the show.”

“Ok, then the bar again,” Kate said.

Vera was already on the phone with them when Kate and Betty headed back to their room. Betty needed to shower. After a few moments, Kate joined her. Betty figured she would. She needed to relax. She had another show in Bristol, another surprise one in London and then onto Brussels and the rest of mainland Europe.

The second Bristol show went as wonderfully as the first. It was a more, Kate had taken to calling them “mainstream” crowd than some of the other English cities they had visited. But their seemed to be a few knowing cheers when Kate dedicated “Tonight with my Friend” to the blonde in the front row. Betty went red with embarrassment by herself, now that Gladys had to leave to take care of some work business. She promised to try to meet up with them later in the tour.

Once they were back to the hotel, Betty located the scrap of paper she had Patsy write her phone number down on. It was their last night and Bristol and she wanted to let her and Delia know she and Kate would be back in London for a bit.

“Nonnatus House. Midwife speaking,” a young girl, who didn’t really sound like she was from London, answered the phone when Betty called.

She was thrown for moment and then remembered Patsy telling her the convent she lived in only had one phone.

“Uh, is Patsy there?” Betty asked, wondering which of the co-workers she had been told about it was.

“Oh, sorry no,” the midwife replied. “She isn’t on duty right now and I haven’t seen her in a few days. But, would you like me to take a message for her?”

“Yeah. Just tell her Betty called to let her know I’m going to be a London tomorrow,” Betty told her. She left the number for the Bristol hotel and hung up.

She sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the telephone.

“Everyone is meeting at the bar downstairs for drinks,” Kate told her as she peered around the door frame into the bedroom.

“Yeah, sure,” Betty mumbled.

“Is everything OK?” Kate asked as Betty met her in the doorway.

“I just tried to call the kids from London. Didn’t reach them. I left a message but I got a bad feeling for some reason,” Betty admitted.

Kate leaned in and lightly kissed her. “You are adorable when you are worried.”

Betty smirked. “So I shouldn’t stop then?”

“It has only been a few weeks. I am sure everything is fine,” Kate Andrews said. Her voice giving reassurance to her girlfriend as they walked down to the bar together.

Kate Andrew’s voice was causing a much different feeling as it sang through a bedroom in Wales. It just made the listener feel confused. But almost everything did. The lady from the hospital, her mother she had to remind herself, had been leaving her alone in her room for two and half hours after supper each night since they arrived in the farmhouse. She had apparently grown up there but she didn’t know. Everything left her confused.

But something about this record was different. It was a different, almost urgent confusion. Like she was consistently about to remember something but then would forgot again. She had listened to it during the alone time for the past four days. It had arrived a week ago but she didn’t want to listen to it until the letter that came with it made a lick of sense to her.

It was from that red-haired girl from the hospital. The one that cried and said they were friends. The letter was on sunny, yellow stationary and was signed “Patsy” in elegant handwriting and large swooping letters. That was the only part of the letter that made sense to her.

The rest of it felt wrong somehow. Patsy had written they worked together at the hospital for a whole and were friends but that didn’t sound right. She had apparently lent Patsy this record. It was one of her favorite singers. But she didn’t know why and Patsy didn’t explain. So, she had been listening to it over and over trying to see if she could understand why she had liked it so much.

She would stare down at the sunny Patsy letter as she did and consider writing something back, but she didn’t know what she would say.

It was shortly after eleven when Betty was ready for bed and lying on top of the sheets. She was waiting for Kate to join her before she actually went to bed. She didn’t want to fall asleep before she arrived. Betty could hear her moving around the bathroom and humming to herself.

Betty jumped when the phone rang.

“Hello?” Betty answered.

“Is this Betty?” the familiar sounding voice asked.

“Yeah, who is this?”

“It’s Trixie. Patsy’s friend. I’m sorry to call you so late. I didn’t think Patsy would return your call so I thought I would.”

Betty was seated now and with her feet on the floor. “Yeah, thanks. Why did you think she wouldn’t? Has something happened?”

Trixie sighed. “That is why I called. She has barely been talking to me. Granted I have been a bit…distracted but I think she’ll feel more comfortable speaking to you. It’s about Delia.”

Trixie recounted what had happened to Betty. She told her about Delia’s accident, Patsy’s struggle to get information at first, her poor experience at the hospital and her two day disappearance afterwards. Trixie knew there had to be more to the story, more that Patsy didn’t want to or was too sad or afraid to tell her about. But maybe she would be different with Betty. Trixie had listen to Patsy talk about her and seen how she acted around her.

“I think you will be able to help,” Trixie said, feeling odd telling this near stranger that she could help her best friend more than she could.

“OK, yeah,” Betty said with a strained voice into the phone.

Kate had spotted her from the bathroom doorway. She figured Betty’s earlier feeling had been right. Something must be wrong with the London kids. Kate quietly walked over and sat beside Betty. She was crouched over the bedside table jotting down information on the notepad.

Kate could see the distress in her shoulders and hear it in her breathing. She put her arm around her and kissed her neck. She glanced up at her with a sad smile.

“Yeah, thanks for letting me know. I’ll try to find her tomorrow,” Betty said into the phone.

She hung up and sighed. Kate kissed her again.

“You were right?” Kate asked.

“Yeah,” she replied with a fidget.

“Are they OK?” Kate asked, preparing herself for another story of arrests or hate crimes. Betty looked too upset for this to just be a break up.

“I ain’t sure. That was their friend, Trixie,” Betty told Kate. “Delia was in a car accident or well car and bike. She was on a bike. It seemed like she was pretty banged up from what Trixie knows.”

“But, she’s OK?”

Betty shook her head. “Head injury. She can’t remember…well, anything.”

Kate sighed that time. Betty took her hand and held it.

“How is Patsy doing?” Kate asked.

Betty shrugged. “Not good it seems. But Trixie didn’t really know. She hasn’t seen her much outside of work since Pasty told her Delia went back to Wales with her family.”

“Aren’t they roommates?” Kate asked.

Betty nodded. “Patsy’s either been really good at avoiding or has been sleeping somewhere else.”

“She has told someone there, right?” Kate asked, taking Betty’s hand in her free one.

“Trixie? Yeah, a friend of hers they work with. They’ve been trying to figure out where she’s been going but they haven’t had much luck,” Betty replied.

“We know enough places in London. We can find her,” Kate assured Betty.

Betty didn’t look very convinced. She let Kate nudge them into bed and turn off the lights. It wasn’t until Betty was settled in Kate’s arms that she finally voiced her concern.

“What if I can’t help her?” Betty asked quietly.

“Of course, you can. You’re a hero, Betty. Just like you’ve always been And if you can’t do it alone, I’ll be there to help you.”

The early the next morning, Trixie was pushing her bike down a mostly empty Poplar street. For a few minutes it had only been her and Sister Mary Cynthia. They had both been called to an overnight delivery. It was easy and routine, but the couple was first time parents. So, Sister Julienne had sent them both.

Trixie was glad. She had realized their weeks of silence was silly. She and Sister Mary Cynthia had been spending most of their time together since they finally broke their silence. Sure, a lot of what they talked about and did was in regards to Trixie’s problem. But now that that was being managed, it was like nothing had changed. They were just as they had been before.

They had even broke out the Monopoly game Jenny Lee had left for them and played with Barbara one night. Trixie had set it up in the dining room, hoping to catch Patsy if she came home. But, she didn’t.

The sister stopped pushing her bike. Trixie stopped too and noticed that she was looking down the street. Trixie followed her eyes and saw her too.

It was the first time Trixie had seen Patsy when she wasn’t on duty for almost a month. She was locking the street level door of a building. She was dressed for work, but Trixie knew her shift didn’t start for another 45 minutes.

“Go talk to her, Trixie,” Sister Mary Cynthia instructed.

“Right, of course,” Trixie said as she started to move forward again, moving quickly to catch up.

“Patsy,” Trixie called out when she almost reached her.

Patsy turned at the noise. She looked nervous and sad for moment and then instantly put on her tough front.

“Hello, Trixie,” she replied cheerily. “Early morning delivery?”

Trixie glared and sighed at her when she reached her side. “None of that, Patsy.”

“Of what?”

“We agreed to stop lying to each other,” Trixie said with a hint of force.

“I’m not lying about anything,” she replied with a smile.

Trixie turned her bike in front of her and forced her to stop. “You don’t have to do this. I know what really happened, remember? You need someone to talk to about all this truthfully. There is nothing for you to fear from me.”

“And Sister Mary Cynthia?” she said in a hissing whisper.

Trixie could see her around Patsy, hanging back as far as she could. “She doesn’t know the real story. But you two were friends once. She would still be your friend even if she doesn’t agree.”

“And Nurse Krane? Sister Winfred? Sgt. Knoakes? I can’t pretend we were just friends. Not well enough, not anymore. I did it for so long and I finally thought it was over. Then everything fell to pieces,” Patsy wiped her face with a shaking hand. “I’m sorry, Trixie. I can’t. I’ll see you at clinic,” she said with more tears escaping her eyes as she stepped around Trixie’s bike and headed off down the street.

Trixie watched her go, feeling defeated.

“How did it go?” Sister Mary Cynthia asked when she arrived at her side.

“Not well.”

“It appeared so,” she replied cautiously. “Is this all about her friend Delia from The London or part of that secret you wouldn’t tell me about?”

“Both,” Trixie said with a sad smile.

She peered at the building and took note of the address. She wasn’t going to come back but she knew someone who might have better luck.

“Can I just get a coffee?” Betty asked the waiter at coffee bar Trixie had told her to try.

“Same, please. Thank you,” Kate said.

The waiter nodded and left them alone. Betty peered around the place. Kate was smiling at her when her gaze reached her.

“There have got to be a ton of places to get tea round here,” Betty stated. She hadn’t spotted who she had been looking for.

“Didn’t Trixie mention this place by name?” Kate asked in reassurance.

Betty nodded as she exhaled the smoke from her cigarette. “She knew they used to get tea together a lot and she thinks she heard them mention this place a few times.”

“Maybe she will show up,” Kate added.

The waiter placed the coffee in front of them.

“Thank you,” Kate said with a wide smile.

Betty nodded at him.

“Let’s just finish these and if she don’t show by then we’ll go to the address?” Betty suggested.

Kate nodded.

Betty called the convent again when they arrived in London. She talked to Trixie again. She had seen Pasty coming out of a building Trixie thought contained a handful of small flats. She thought maybe Patsy had been sleeping there and gave Betty the address.

A short while later, Kate and Betty were sitting on a bench a little ways down the street from the mystery address. Betty was reading the newspaper they had picked up at the coffee shop and Kate was keeping an eye out.

“Damn, they are good,” Betty thought aloud. She tipped the paper to Kate and she saw her name under local concert listings with the short blurb Vera and Marco always sent to the local papers.

“We should do something nice for them once we get to Brussels,” Kate said as she leaned closer to read it.

Betty was about to nod but got distracted. She pushed the paper to Kate.

“Hey, kid!” Betty called as she hopped off the bench and headed toward Patsy, who was unlocking the door.

Betty watched about four different emotions wash over her face and then decided to answer for her.

“I left a message for you,” Betty answered.

“I haven’t been spending much time at Nonnatus,” Patsy mumbled with her eyes to the ground.

“I know,” Betty said taking a step closer. “Trixie called me back, told me what happened.”

“Could we come inside?” Kate asked from Betty’s side.

Patsy looked up at them nervously. Kate smiled kindly and Betty nodded.

“It doesn’t have any furniture,” she replied, but pushed the door open.

“We can sit on the floor,” Betty told stepping inside.

“It is the first on the right up the stairs,” Patsy told her but didn’t move from the sidewalk.

Kate took Patsy’s hand and pulled her inside behind her.

“I used to live in a lot of places without furniture,” Kate told her.

“Yeah, my prison cell didn’t have much either,” Betty added as she reached the door.

Patsy nervously walked between them and unlocked the door. She tried to remain in the hallway but Kate lightly nudged her inside to join Betty, who’d already walked in. Kate stepped inside too and closed and locked the door behind her.

Betty stood near the window with her hands in her pockets. She looked down at the fresh flowers in the vase and then over at Patsy. She had expected her to have said something by now.

“This is your home, Patsy,” Kate said to her quietly as she put her hands on her shoulders. “You do not need to be nervous in your own home.”

Patsy didn’t looked up at her. “It was supposed to be our home.”

“Who’s sayin’ it ain’t?” Betty asked matter-a-factly.

Patsy glanced up at her. That was how Patsy had been struggling to look at it. It was still theirs, still the flat she rented with Delia for one and a half days. That was why she couldn’t let it go. She had pushed her set of keys through the mail slot in an attempt to put it behind her. But by the next morning she stopped by the locksmith and picked up the set she had cut for Delia that she had planned to never pick up.

“Let’s sit,” Kate suggested.

Patsy nodded and sat on the edge of the blanket that was still spread on the floor. Kate sat beside her and Betty propped herself up against the wall under the window.

After a moment of silence, Kate spoke up.

“Would you like to tell us what happened?” she asked.

Patsy nervously looked at her for a moment. She shook her head and looked away.

“What did Trixie tell you?” she decided to ask, changing her mind.

Kate looked to Betty.

“She said Delia got hit by a car, couldn’t remember anything,” Betty answered meekly.

Patsy inhaled deeply, trying to hold back her tears. Kate took her hand again and gave her a compassionate, understandingly look.

Patsy nodded. “She got hit by a car, on my work bike just a few blocks from here. She doesn’t remember anything about me or us. She couldn’t even remember her mother last time I saw her.”

“When was that?” Betty quickly asked, trying to keep her talking.

“Two days after the accident,” Patsy tearfully stated. “That was the earliest I was allowed in to see her.”

“Have you visited her since?” Kate asked.

Patsy shook her head. “Her mother wouldn’t let me see her again… said I upset her too much. Then she took her back to Wales without even telling me. My friend who is working at The London right now tried to go check on her for me and found she wasn’t there.”

“Have you tried calling her?” Kate asked.

Patsy actually look up and made eye contact that time. Kate thought it seemed like a good step.

“Her family doesn’t have a telephone. I sent her a letter and…one of your records. But she hasn’t replied.”

Patsy looked down at the frayed edge of the blanket, failing to suppress a tear. Kate knew she had to say something to help her. She glanced across to Betty for help. She was tightly clenching her hands together and looking as if she was also about to cry.

Kate knew it was all on her.

“Send her another one,” Kate suggested. “She probably doesn’t know what to say.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Patsy replied nervously.

Kate seemed to get an idea and smiled excitedly. “I know what you should say. Do you have any paper?”

Patsy nodded. She got up and went to the counter. She picked up a sheet of yellow stationary and a pen that was lying between a handful of crunched up pieces and two ripped up envelopes.

“Bring two pieces,” Kate told her.

Patsy seemed to stiffen and wouldn’t look at either of them. Kate wasn’t going to let her shut down on them again.

“Actually bring four and two pens,” Kate corrected. “Betty is going to do this too.”

“I am?” she questioned.

“Yes,” Kate replied trying to sound mean.

Patsy sat beside Kate once again and handed half the supplies to Betty who was sitting across from her. Kate spotted two books behind her. She handed the medical text to Patsy and the other to Betty.

“Really?” Betty questioned holding up the bible.

Patsy smiled for the first time since Betty and Kate arrived.

“Delia brought that as a joke,” Patsy explained.

Betty smiled back and put her paper on top of it. “So, what we doin’ Kate?”

Kate smirked at her and then turned to Patsy. “You are going to write two letters to Delia. In the first one, write everything you want to say to her, everything you would tell her right now if the accident didn’t happen. Write it like she is just at work and you’ll give it to her when she comes through the door in a few hours.”

Patsy looked at the door, then the stationary and then back to Kate, feeling like she might cry. “But, what is the point? I can’t send her that letter.”

“I know,” Kate said softly. “But there is a chance that it will all come back to her, right?”

Patsy nodded. “It is probably unlikely. But, yes. There is a chance.”

“That is the point to this letter,” Kate stated. “You can give it to her when she remembers.”

“What is the second one going to be?” Patsy asked cautiously.

“What you are able to say to her now, what you can send her.”

Patsy nodded understanding and turned her attention to the stationary. She peered down at it for a moment and the started writing.

Kate turned her attention back to Betty. She held up her first piece, which had “Please Remember Me” written across it. Kate smiled at her and nodded. Betty held up the second, which said “Wished on the Moon.” Kate smiled again.

‘I knew it,’ she mouthed to Kate.

She laughed slightly, but didn’t distract Patsy. All her attention was on her letters.

_Dearest Delia,_

_I promised you once that I would find a way for us to be together. I haven’t given up on that. I knew it would be hard, but I never thought it would be like this. Everything would be better if you were beside me. Or if I could just see you again._

_You know, I am usually terrible at saying things like this. I barely can without wanting to flee or hide in a bathroom. But, you are always there to find me. And that is just one of the reasons why I love you so much._

_There is so much more I would like to tell you, but it doesn’t feel right in a letter I am only writing because Kate Andrews told me to. She is in our flat right now with Betty. If only you were here to see this. I would like to tell you everything else and ask you something, but I want to do it in person. Please return to me soon._

_Love,  
Patsy _

Patsy skimmed what she had written. She folded up the letter and slipped it into her sweater pocket. She then grabbed the next sheet and started on the other letter, the one she could send.

She spent more time staring down at the blank page trying to think what she should say this Delia. It wasn’t her Delia, not really, not yet. This letter was to a girl who barely knew her that she had only spent a few minutes with in person and written one other letter to.

Once Patsy had finally figured out what to write, she folded up that letter too. She went to retrieve a envelope from the counter. She slipped the letter inside, sealed it and wrote Delia’s parents’ address on it. Patsy already had the address memorized because of how often she had thought about sending more to her but hadn’t.

Patsy turned around and saw that Kate and Betty were writing notes back and forth to each other on one of Betty’s pieces of stationary.

Betty glanced up in the middle of a laugh and saw Patsy looking at them with a sense of jealously and longing.

“Sorry, red,” Betty stated. “You’ve finished up?”

Patsy held up the sealed ‘what she could say letter’ but she couldn’t think of anything to say so she just nodded.

Kate took Betty’s arm and turned her wrist until she could see her watch.

“I should probably get going,” Kate said. “Leon wanted us to meet in 30 minutes.”

“You goin’ on at 9, right?” Betty asked.

Kate nodded to Betty. “You will come, won’t you?” Kate asked Patsy.

“She’s singin’ at that bar again,” Betty told her, realizing just then they had neglected to tell Patsy why they were even in London again.

Patsy shrugged nervously. She put her hands in her pockets, but quickly removed the left one.

“I-I don’t have anyone to go with,” Patsy admitted.

“Don’t be silly, Patsy,” Kate replied with a smile.

“Yeah, kid,” Betty added. “You comin’ with me.”

Patsy had the same wondering thought of why they were being so nice to her. But, then she recalled what Betty had said. They were role models.

“O…Kay,” Patsy chocked out nervously.

“Good,” Betty answered. “You get goin’, Kate,” Betty said as she leaned in for a goodbye kiss.

Kate nodded and opened the door. “I will see both of you later,” she said as she closed the door to Patsy and Delia’s flat.

Betty pointed at the letter in Patsy’s hands.

“You’ve got to send that. So, why don’t you take me to the closest post office, then I’ll take you to dinner and then we head to Kate’s show?”

Patsy nodded.

Betty let Patsy lead them out and down onto the street. The post office was about three blocks away. They started the walk in silence.

Betty was desperately trying to think of something to say. Weirdly, she wished Gladys was there. She would know what to say. She could get Patsy talking, just like she could always get her talking when she didn’t want to.

“You ain’t takin’ as much as you used to,” Betty stated, attempting to channel Gladys.

“Did I really talk that much before?” Patsy shot back.

Betty nodded. “Fair point. I’m just sayin’, you can talk about you and Delia and what happened…or anything you want. You don’t got to be afraid around me.” Betty awkwardly ran her hand through her hair, thinking about how much better Gladys would be at this.

Patsy didn’t reply. She just looked at the sidewalk as if she was about cry. Betty was about to ask what was wrong when they arrived at the post office. Patsy appeared to shake herself into a different demeanor and entered.

Betty followed her inside. She hung back and watched her kept up the same front as she dealt with the worker and sent the letter on to Delia.

“All right, sorry,” Betty told her once they were outside again. “You are already being honest with me. You’re good at faking.”

Patsy sadly nodded. “Delia always used to say that. But she also knew the truth. She was the only one who did. She had to remind me a few weeks ago that I don’t need to be so scarred and reserved around our friends.”

“That is good advice,” Betty stated.

“I know that, but I don’t know who our – well only my, I presume, my friends are,” Patsy admitted.

“Trixie, certainly is,” Betty said as they turned the corner, heading to the restaurant Betty, Kate and Gladys went to the last time they were in London. “She seemed really worried.”

Patsy nodded. She did feel bad about avoiding Trixie. But seeing Trixie was almost a guarantee of seeing Sister Mary Cynthia nowadays and going back to their room in Nonnatus meant she could have to face Barbara or Nurse Krane or Sister Juilenne. She wasn’t ready for that yet.

“I know. I will try to see her,” Patsy halfheartedly stated.

“I know it’s scary or maybe dangerous to let more people in but the ones that you can are important and don’t lump them in with the others,” Betty told her as they reached the door to the restaurant. “I made that mistake once.”

Betty explained that during dinner. She told Pasty about how she had to tell her friend, Vera, about her fancy for women after she had helped her and her girlfriend before Kate fend off a group of men outside of a bar in Toronto. She also said if she had just came clean to her boss from the factory days, she could have thrown off some of the suspicion that landed her in prison.

Patsy felt her face keep flushing after everything Betty said. Or maybe that was from the beer. Either way, Patsy grew nervous at how open Betty was being, especially when Betty paid for both of them. It was something Patsy and Delia hardly ever did. Patsy then realized she was just being paranoid. Betty was about 20 years old then her. People probably thought she was her aunt or something.

Across town, Kate walked down the hallway of the hotel, feeling guilty about lying to Patsy. But in her defense, it had been Betty’s idea. She still had the crumpled piece of yellow stationary to prove it. She didn’t need to meet Leon as early as she said. She wanted to mail something first.

Kate knocked on Vera and Marco’s door. Vera was already down at the bar so Marco was alone, as Kate expected him to be.

“What can I do for you, Miss Andrews?” he asked with a wide grin.

“I have an obscure recording request,” she told him.

He snapped, pointed at her and then turned to walk to the case by the back wall.

“How obscure we going?” he asked as she knelt down to unzip it.

“'Please Remember Me’,” Kate stated.

“Ew,” Marco exclaimed as he scanned the records that filled the case. He pulled two up and examined the titles. “Huh, we actually have two. One marked 'Please Remember Me’ and one marked 'Prison Song/Kate loves Betty’. That last part looks to be in Vera’s handwriting.”

Kate smiled. Vera had said as much the first time she performed the song. “Can I have the one with the actual title? I’d like to send it to a fan.”

“No problem,” Marco stated as he held it out to Kate.

Kate held the record closely and headed out. She asked the lady at the front desk for the nearest post office in the opposite of direction of Patsy’s apartment.

“We stickin’ with beer?” Betty asked Patsy as they sat at the table near the stage at the bar.

“Why not?” Patsy replied.

Betty hopped up from the table and headed to the bar, leaving Patsy alone at the table. Patsy had a strange sense of belonging. She had been to this bar a handful of times now and every time she felt safer. The anxiousness that nearly consumed her the first time when Delia pulled her inside had faded. She wasn’t afraid or even nervous about expressing her biggest secret in such an open way.

Well, maybe she wasn’t actually displaying it. She was there, but she was also alone. It would have been different if Delia was there. They could have danced or flirted or kissed.

Patsy finally had the courage too. She hated herself for taking too long to find it.

“Drink up, kid,” Betty stated as she placed a beer in front of her and sat down. “You look like you need it.”

Patsy obeyed. She placed her glass back on the table and peered at it for a moment before looking up Betty. “I just…I wish she was here.”

Betty nodded understandingly and struggled to think of something good to say. “You know, sometimes life is just a series of tragic tests. And it sucks and it’s hard and nothing goes like how ya thought it would. But, if you can make it through it, you’ll get what you want most.”

As if Betty’s answer was some kind of cosmic cue, Kate and Leon walked onto the stage and applause spread throughout the bar.

“Hello, everyone,” Kate said with a wide smile into the microphone during a brief break in the applause. “Thank you so much for welcoming me back. Sorry for the late notice, but my special someone and I wanted to visit some friends of ours. They are having a tough time right now, so I would like to dedicate this song to them.”

Leon started playing the piano and Kate broke into the words of “Please Remember Me.”

Betty shook her head with a smirk up at Kate. She caught her eye and smiled while giving her an encouraging nod. Betty glanced over at Patsy, who was too entranced by the song to notice.

Betty had to wait until the song ended for Patsy to become reachable again. Betty got her attention as she took a sip of her beer. She raised her eyebrows at her from behind the glass at her lips.

“Is there anything keepin’ you in London right now?” Betty asked her.

Patsy looked as for a moment and then only shrugged. “I like my job, but either than that no, not particularly. Why do you ask?”

“Want to come with us? You should come with us,” Betty asked and then stated. She was unable to decide which way she wanted to propose the idea.

“Come with you where?” Patsy asked skeptically.

“Mainland Europe. The rest of Kate’s tour,” Betty told her.

For a moment, Patsy couldn’t get herself to say anything.

“Really?” she finally got out through her surprise.

“Yeah,” Betty said, wanting to add more.

“Why? I mean, I am flattered. But, we barely know each other and I can’t really afford to travel throughout the mainland… I’m saving all my wages, in case I am able…to go to Wales.”

“Don’t be a loon, kid,” Betty replied with a smile. “We’re going to pay for everything. You’d be part of the tour.”

“But I don’t know the first thing about music,” Patsy admitted.

Betty laughed. “Yeah, I don’t really either. You can be…our medic? Anyway Red, that ain’t the point,” Betty stated growing more heartfelt. “You’re going through a lot right now. And I know your situation here ain’t the best. So, get away from it for a while. Travel with us. Ya don’t have to be scared or secretive. And I’m not saying you should forget anything about you and Delia, but maybe getting away from everything will help you move forward.”

Patsy hardly ever cried and the number of times she had in public was in the single digits. She closed her eyes and bit the inside of her mouth so hard she tasted a bit of blood.

Betty was right. She did need to get away. She needed to accept what had happened and then try to move forward. She wanted to always feel the way she did in this bar and maybe she could find that traveling with Betty and Kate.

“Right, yes. I will come with you,” Patsy answered.

“Excellent. We are leaving at about 4 in the afternoon tomorrow for Brussels. We can put you up for the night in our hotel. I noticed your apartment didn’t have a bed.”

Patsy gave a small smile. It didn’t. She had been sleeping on a pile of blankets, for some reason she and Delia had both had blankets to spare but no other usable, portable items.

“Thank you, but it is quite all right. I’d like to spend one more night in the flat. And I will have to be up early tomorrow to tell Sister Julienne I will finally be using my leave time,” Patsy stated as she begin to feel a hint of excitement about the trip.

A few days later, a package and a letter sat on a bed in Wales. The person they were both addressed to stared down at them. She would be more impressed at her own ability to be standing for so long if she was not so consumed to trying to make sense of the two items.

The letter didn’t confuse her. She knew what it was the moment she saw the yellow envelope in the lady who said she was her mother’s hands. Yellow envelope meant yellow stationary, which meant it was a letter from Patsy. A second letter. The amount of excitement she felt should have confused her but she had grown accustomed to it.

She had spent hours looking at the first letter. She could recall every word and pen stroke. That was how she knew the package was not from Patsy the moment she looked at it.

The package had no return address, but the handwriting was not Patsy’s.

The package had a record inside it marked “Please Remember Me” and a note that read “hopefully you find someone to walk through life with - MR.”

She then sat on her bed to read Patsy’s letter again.

_Dear Delia,_

_I decided I would write you again. I hope you do not mind. I know you don’t recall us being friends. Maybe you will one day. Hopefully, if you don’t we can start anew and become friends again. I would like that._

_I am not good at writing letters. Feel free to tease me if you like. I hope Wales is treating you well. I also hope the same for your family and your doctors there._

_I know I must be strange to receive these letters since we only met the one time. If you do not wish to write me back I understand. But, please don’t be nervous to if you would like to._

_I promise I will be nice to you and not criticize you too harshly. Being you friend doesn’t make me sad. I know you said that a while ago. But it is quite the opposite and I wanted to make sure you know that._

_Sincerely,  
Patsy _

She continued to hold it as she walked over to her record player. She turned off the Kate Andrews record that Patsy had sent with her first letter. She had it playing whenever she was in her bedroom. She put on the new record. It took her a moment to realize it was also Kate Andrews. She listened to the song all the way through. Then she restarted it and sat back down on her bed to listen closer.

_Oh lover please remember me_  
When I go away  
I’ll keep you right here in my heart  
Think of you everyday  
I want to hold you close  
Keep you company  
Oh lover please remember me 

Delia’s feeling and mind were always in constant struggle with each other when she really listened to a Kate Andrews’ song. It felt familiar, but she couldn’t remember hearing it before. Patsy’s letters felt that way too. Everything was familiar but not and sounded right but sounded wrong. She clenched her fists and pushed them down as hard as she could on the bed.

She had to figure this all out. She had the opportunity to and finally decided it was time to take it.

'Dear Patsy,’ Delia wrote on the piece of paper she had been keeping on her nightstand since the day after she read Patsy’s first letter.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patsy is starting to feel at home with Betty and Kate Andrews on the tour through Europe. Another letter makes Delia realize the true meaning of her friendship with Patsy.

“You know, you’re making us worried with all this wanderin’ off you’ve been doing,” Betty said as she sat beside Patsy on the bench in a park a few blocks away from their hotel in Paris.

“I thought you said you two weren’t my parents?” Patsy replied playfully as she looked up from her book at Betty.

“We ain’t, we ain’t,” Betty offered up as her weak defense. “Fine, we’re trying not to be. If you want to wander off in the mornings with,” she leaned over to see the book Patsy was holding, “medical books and,” she flipped through the book on the bench beside her, “Japanese poetry?”

“Mandarin, actually,” Patsy said taking the book back.

“Right, sure,” Betty stated with an exaggerated nod. “That’s perfectly normal.”

Patsy laughed. “There are still a few things you don’t know about me.”

Betty grinned. “Wish I could say the same for me but you’ve been spending too much time with Vera.”

Patsy returned her smile.

It had been a week since she left London with Betty, Kate Andrews and the other members of the tour. Kate had played two shows in Belgium and then they had made their way to Paris, arriving the night before.

Patsy wished she could say she left all her heartache and sadness on the dirty, densely populated streets of Poplar, but she hadn’t. It was with her almost as much in this park in Paris as it was that last night in the flat back in London.

That was why she was glad Betty didn’t look any closer at the medical book in her hands. She had been reading every entry on memory loss, seizures, head injuries and brain trauma in every medical book she could find. This one she had picked up at a bookstore that had a wide section of titles in English near the university she had walked through before the park. The book of Mandarin love poems that she had stumbled upon seemed like too much of a sign to not also pick up.

“Anyway you should come back with me, kid,” Betty told her. “Trixie called for you.”

“This early? Did she say what it was about?” Patsy asked.

Betty stood and shook her head as she put her hands in her pockets.

“Nope, guess you are going to have to call her again,” Betty answered.

Patsy nodded, collected her things and walked with Betty back to the hotel.

Patsy had been doing her best to call Trixie when they arrived in a new city. Patsy had halfheartedly promised Betty she would spend more time with Trixie when they were still in London.

The promise had to be kept over the phone, but Tirixe didn’t seem to be minding. She found it terribly exciting that Patsy was traveling around with famous Canadians. Patsy was finding the set up rather appealing also. She was able to speak with Trixie without having to face anyone else from Nonnatus. The brief meeting with Sister Julienne and the last lunch was almost more than she was ready to handle.

“Nonnatus House, midwife speaking,” Patsy heard when her call was answered.

“Hello, Nurse Krane,” Patsy replied. “It’s Nurse Mount calling. Is Tri–Nurse Franklin available?”

“She should be. She is the one on duty so don’t you take up too much of her time,” Nurse Krane said.

“I promise not too,” Patsy said trying to be nice.

“Good. It is nice to hear from you, Nurse Mount.”

Patsy was about to thank her but then heard a muffled excited Trixie through the phone.

“Yes, yes, our conversation will not delay the miracle of life for more than 10 minutes,” Trixie said into the phone but to Nurse Krane. She then sighed loudly.

Patsy smiled, imagining the face she was making. “Hello, Trixie.”

“Hello, darling. So Paris is more interesting than answering my calls?” Trixie joked.

“Sorry, I went for a walk,” Patsy answered.

“Well, I do hope that is a sign of you doing better?”

“I think so,” Patsy admitted quietly, glad that she was alone in her hotel room.

“Excellent because something arrived for you today,” Trixie said with excitement in her voice.

Trixie couldn’t wait for Patsy to think it through and had to offer a hint. “It’s a letter from Wales.”

Trixie listened to the silence on the other end for a moment.

“From Delia?” Patsy finally was able to say once her excitement and anxiousness subsided.

“Of course, silly. Now where should I send this for you to receive it?” Trixie asked.

“Oh gosh,” Patsy said suddenly feeling herself grow even more excited about her first bit of communication from Delia in months. “It probably would not arrive in Paris before we leave. Could you send it to the hotel in Rheims? That is our next city.”

She scrambled through the papers of travel plans Vera had given to each member of the tour. She found the one with the Rheims hotel’s address and read it off to Trixie.

“Excellent. I will send it in between deliveries today. Take care, sweetie and call me when you arrive,” Trixie instructed kindly.

“Of course. Goodbye, Trixie.”

Patsy hung up and sat excited on the edge of the bed. She let her mind wonder for a moment about what the letter might say and how she would responded to it. She jumped when there was a knock on her door.

“Yes, come in,” Patsy said as she turned to face the door.

“Good news, I hope?” Kate said while standing in the doorway next to Betty, who was smoking a cigarette.

Patsy nodded and smiled at her. “Yes. Thank you. She wrote me back. Trixie is sending the letter to the next hotel.”

“Oh, yay,” Kate said with a hint of surprise and a giddy smile from Patsy to Betty.

“You not think that was gonna work? It worked on me,” Betty replied with a grin.

“You should go celebrating with everyone,” Kate suggested. “Take this one with you,” she said motioning to Betty.

“But, it is barely mid morning,” Patsy pointed out.

Betty had to laugh, realizing Kate’s excitement that her plan had worked made her forgot to think about the hour.

“We’ll be doing enough celebrating tonight,” Betty said mostly to Patsy. “Can’t wait for you to see the place she is singin’ at tonight. Looks more suited for a rock concert.”

Kate looked slightly offended and then nodded in agreement. “It might be the most upbeat show I have ever done, but hopefully there will not be a problem.”

“‘Course there won’t be,” Betty stated. “But, since you’ve got to re-make the setlist with Leon and Vera, Marco and I are going to take the boys and some others out sightseeing for the afternoon. You want to come, Patsy?”

“I’d love to,” Patsy answered.

“All right, let’s go see where they are,” Betty suggested.

“Don’t be too late,” Kate told her girlfriend as she lightly grabbed her hand. “I still want to go over it with you.”

Betty smiled at her and Kate smiled back before the blonde kissed her lips. “I know,” she replied looking pleased. She brought her hand to her lips and kissed it too before heading out the door.

Kate watched Patsy meekly hurry past her after Betty. She was attempting to hide the longing look on her face, which Kate had grown accustomed to seeing.

Three days later, Patsy sat anxiously in her seat by the window. She glanced up from the passage on brain trauma in one of her medical books. She had been trying to read the same sentence for what felt like an hour. The harder she tried the less she could focus.

She decide to give up and peered out the train window to watch the French landscape zoom past her. Taking it in for a moment made her feel silly. She had just spent time in Paris. She had danced for nearly an hour with Betty, Vera and Marco in a mass of people at Kate Andrews’ liveliest show ever. Or at least, that was what Vera called it. She was now going to another French city, one she hadn’t even heard of until a few weeks ago.

But, none of it had made her as excited or anxious as the letter that was possibly already at the hotel waiting for her.

She pulled the book of Mandarin poetry out of the front pocket of her suitcase. She cracked the book to the page that contained the poem she decided was her favorite. She pulled out the yellow envelope. She considered taking the letter out and reading it again. But she didn’t need to. She knew what it said; what she really wanted to say to Delia.

She peered out the window again and watched the small village quickly come into view and pass out of it again.

It almost did not matter to her anymore what the letter said, the thought that Delia had actually remembered enough or felt like writing her back was enough. Or at least enough to hold her over until the they reached the hotel in Rheims.

“Leon, room 162,” Vera read off the list of room assignment after they had all gathered in the hotel lobby.

Marco fumbled through the keys in his hands and held out the correct one.

“Kate and Betty, room 163. And Patsy, room 164.”

Marco tossed one key to Betty. He handed Patsy’s to her.

“This was also here for you,” Vera said, holding out a letter sized envelope.

Patsy took it excitedly and held it in both her hands. She had to read Delia’s name in the corner about three times until she was convinced it was real.

“You best be sharin’ with us later, kid,” Betty said with a joking smile.

“Ooo, would that be the letter from the lady friend?” Vera asked with peeked interest.

Patsy was too distracted to get embarrassed.

“Oh, let her be,” Kate shot at them getting embarrassed for her.

“Excuse me, everyone,” Patsy breathed as she headed to her room. She had to look down at the key to check the number. In the excitement she had already forgotten.

She walked into the room and left her bag by the door. She went to the bed, which was just as large and posh as the last one, and sat on the edge. She ripped open the letter with care.

She looked down at it, took a deep breath and then unfolded it.

_Dear Patsy,_

_Thank you for writing me again. And for sending me the Kate Andrews record. I like it. I don’t know why though. It leaves me confused._

_But you don’t. I hope that isn’t weird to say. As you said we only met the one time. But, it doesn’t feel like that. I feel like I can trust you and I can tell you things. Is that correct?_

_Wales is strange. One of the doctors told me being at home would make me feel better because I would feel at home but I don’t. I don’t feel any connection to this place._

_I’ve been told I lived in London before. Do you know why? Why did I not live here, in Wales? My mother doesn’t want to talk about it. I hope you will._

_Please write me back. I promise I will write you, too. You’re letters seem to be helping more than anything my doctors have tried. Aren’t you a doctor? Maybe you should be mine._

_Sincerely,  
Delia _

Patsy reached down for her suitcase and then realized she had left it by the door. She rushed over and got it. She moved it to the floor beside the bed and quick pulled out her stationary and a pen. She quickly peered around the room, actually seeing it for the first time. She spotted the desk, sat down and placed the piece of yellow stationary before her.

_Dear Delia,_

_It is nice to hear from you. I’m glad you wrote me back. It is not weird that I don’t leave you confused. We used to spend a lot of time together, especially just before everything happened._

_Of course, you can trust me. You can tell me anything you want._

She stopped writing and stared down at her words not sure how to go on. Her original excitement from the letter clouded her from realizing the position she was in. She knew the answer to Delia’s questions, all of them. But, it was about a year into their relationship that she told her. It had been a big secret and she was nervous when she told her. Patsy wondered if she should treat it the same. But it was Delia’s secret.

Patsy thought to what Betty told her back in Paris.

“You’re being pretty brave tonight, kid,” Betty told Patsy with a strained breath. They had somehow pushed their way off the crowded dance floor and made it to the small bar in the corner of the Paris venue.

Betty waved down the bartender and got them both beers.

“How is that?” Patsy said with a laugh. “It is only dancing.”

“You think you would have been dancing like that surrounded by this many people like us when you first met me?” Betty said between paying and taking a drink of her beer.

“No, but I also never thought I would be at a Kate Andrews concert in Paris with her girlfriend then either,” Patsy added smiling into her beer.

“I’m proud of you, kid,” Betty said. “You’ve been braver than I would’ve.”

“Didn’t you go to prison?” Patsy shot back.

“Yeah, but that was my choice. What happened to you and Delia, that was nobody’s choice. But, you’re standing by who you are and what you had. And you might start having to for the both of ya,” Betty stated.

Patsy blushed intensely but rolled her eyes trying to cover it. “Can we just get back to the dancing now?”

Betty peered down into her plastic cup and realized she had drunk enough that it wouldn’t spill everywhere. “Yeah let’s go, hero.”

She had to be brave, brave for Delia. Brave enough to be honest with her.

She turned her attention back to the letter, answering Delia’s questions and being honest with her. She couldn’t tell her everything she wanted to yet. But, Delia hadn’t completely forgotten her so maybe it would not take as long as she thought to send the letter in her poetry book.

“Delia, they will be here in a moment,” her mother protested as Delia made her way up the stairs to her room.

“Just yell for me when they get here,” Delia said as she made her way into her room clenching the letter from Patsy.

She closed her door and went to sit on her bed. She ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter. She was smiling before she unfolded it.

_Dear Delia,_

_It is nice to hear from you. I’m glad you wrote me back. It is not weird that I don’t leave you confused. We used to spend a lot of time together, especially just before everything happened._

_Of course, you can trust me. You can tell me anything you want._

_You did live in London. You moved there when you were 18 for nurses’ training. That was why I moved there too, but it was a year or so after you._

_You told me you left Wales because you never got on very well with your family. Your parents did not approve of a lot of things you did. I know the main reason, it is also the reason your mother told me it would be a bad idea to visit._

_However, I am reluctant to tell you. It may come as too much of a shock. Maybe you could work it out on your own? Try listening to “Tonight With My Friend.”_

_If that doesn’t work, I can tell you in the next letter if you like._

_Has anything your doctors have tried helped you regain memories? There are a lot of different treatment options available. They better be doing everything they can. Sorry, if I am being too personal. I’m a nurse, not a doctor. But, I would still be happy to be yours._

_Also, I hope you starting having a better experience with Kate Andrews. Some friends of ours wouldn’t like that it is causing you discomfort._

_Yours truly,  
Patsy _

Delia inhaled deeply, trying to comprehend the letter. Patsy seemed sweet and shy, but also a bit of a hard ass when she needed to be.

Did she get that from the letter or did she remember that? She rushed across the room and put on “Tonight With My Friend.” It seemed to mean slightly more to her but not as much as she hoped it would. She thought her thought about Patsy would help.

She knew this song. It was one of the more upbeat ones. It was all about the singer turning down other people to spend a night alone with her friend. The singer started out thinking her friend needed her but then she realized she needed her more herself.

Was Patsy trying to say she needed her more then she needed her? No, that didn’t seem to make sense.

“Delia,” her mother yelled from the bottom of the stairs. “Your aunt and cousin are here.”

Delia sighed, turned off the record and headed downstairs. She folded the letter and placed it in her pocket.

It took only a few minutes for Delia to be consumed with the thought of pulling it out to re-read. She tried to focus on her tea and not look at her mother. Everything Patsy said made sense to Delia. It had felt like they did not get along very well. She always seemed nervous and cautious around her. Delia wondered if that was from a fear that she might remember whatever it was that drove them apart.

Delia figured it must have something to do with whatever her mother disapproved of about her. Patsy made it seem like it was about her too. She tried to remember every similarity between her and Patsy that she could. But all she come up with was they were nurses, liked Kate Andrews, lived in London and were friends.

“Can I go on a walk with Delia?” the boy of about 12 sitting beside Delia asked his mother and aunt. He placed his empty lemonade glass on the table.

Delia glanced over at him. She wasn’t even sure what his name was but she didn’t feel like being around her mother just then.

“I wouldn’t mind,” she told the two women.

“That will be fine,” Delia’s mother said.

“Just don’t go too far, Desmond,” his mother said.

He nodded excitedly and ran to the door that lead to the backyard. Delia got up and followed him. They walked in silence through the grass for a while. The boy had picked up a rock and was tossing it in the air and catching it.

“I thought you lived in London,” Desmond blurted into the silence.

“I used to,” Delia replied.

“Why don’t you anymore?” he asked nonchalantly tossing the rock.

“Because of my accident I had to come home,” she said remembering that she had never even been asked, she was only told. It didn’t bother her at the time but now she felt like she should feel differently.

“Oh,” Desmond said. “You couldn’t have stayed with your friend?”

“What?” Delia asked confused.

“My brother said you lived in London with your friend, like how he lives in Cardiff with his friend,” he said casually.

Delia was taken aback and stopped.

“W-what?” she forced out causing him to stop too.

Desmond looked nervous. “Do you not remember that I know that? You and Howell were talking about it last Christmas. I was there too, but both of you were pretty pissed. I wasn’t sure if you noticed,” he told her with a giggly smile.

“I don’t remember or…maybe I’m not sure. Why did you say my friend?” Delia asked him.

Her heart seemed to jump every time he said friend and when she said it. It was starting to feel right, well not right. It not being right seemed to be the point but it felt important. It meant something to her and Patsy. That was why it felt like the wrong word in her first letter.

Desmond shrugged. “That was what you said. My brother says that too. They are courting, I guess. But he doesn’t call it that. I guess to be courting you have to be heading toward marriage. But they aren’t doing that,” he pointed it. “I guess, he and Lloyd have just gone steady but like for forever. They should call it that.”

Delia was surprised she remained standing as it all hit her. Everything made sense in that moment. She understand it now, why all of Patsy’s words felt off, why she was so excited about every letter, why she spent so long just gazing at her signature. She hadn’t just been her friend. She had been her girlfriend.

“What’s your friend’s name?” Desmond asked still tossing the rock. “Daisy or something?”

“Pa-Pasty,” Delia stammered out in disbelief. “Her name is Patsy.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delia learns more about her relationship with Patsy, who is preparing for a grand romantic gesture with Kate and Betty’s help.

“We should keep her around,” Vera stated as Betty groaned in pain as Patsy pushed on the bridge of her nose.

“Well, it isn’t broken,” Patsy stated. “Just let me wipe off this blood.”

“So was this a fair fight, prairie girl? Or are you trying to boost my troops’ moral as part of you patriotic duty?” joked the rather intimidating Canadian Women’s Army Corp Chief Warrant Officer Hill.

Or at least that was how Patsy saw the leader of all the women on the Canadian Military base outside of Cologne that they had made a visit to. Everyone else on the tour greeted her as Sgt. Hill or simply Teresa.

They had spent about a day on the base so far. Kate played a concert for the soldiers and Betty boxed a few fights against the base team.

“She used to do the same as you, just in Montreal,” Teresa stated.

“I swear, the toughest ones are the best at throwing fights,” Betty replied as Patsy cleaned the last of the blood of her face.

“That’s probably why you used to be so good at it,” Marco offered up with a laugh.

Kate sighed with a mixed of faux annoyance and actual worry as Betty’s nose started to bleed again. Patsy went back to trying to stop it. This had been a surprise of the tour for Patsy. She had always thought Betty just worked for Kate full-time like Vera, Marco and Leon did.

But, she owned a boxing gym back in Toronto, was a popular boxing coach and competed from time to time. She knew Officer Hill from her factory days and would compete against Canadian base team whenever she traveled.

Patsy didn’t get the real story about Officer Hill until she mentioned off hand around Vera that Kate didn’t seem to like her. Vera then told her she had been the first girl or, as Patsy had heard of her from stories from Betty, the girl before Kate.

Vera and Marco seemed to agree with Patsy when she found it odd how completely different Kate and Teresa were.

“Betty always loved Kate but it just took her much longer to realize it than Betty,” Vera told Patsy before the fight as they waited around the makeshift boxing ring for Betty and the CWAC soldier.

“When did she realize?” Patsy asked them nervously. She was hoping there was something useful for how she could win Delia back, despite the fact that she didn’t even remember they were friends before.

“Ah, when was it?” Marco asked.

Vera shrugged. “To hell if I know. Gladys always says it was after she bailed them out of prison. But they didn’t start dating until…”

“You were already enlisted,” Marco answered.

“It must have been when I was in that hospital in France,” Vera answered. “My boat to England was hit by a torpedo,” she told Patsy.

“My god,” Patsy replied.

“Wasn’t that big of a deal,”‘she stated pulling back her hair and revealing more of her facial and neck scars. “The worst visible one actually happened at the factory.”

Marco pointed at her as he remembered. “It was right before I enlisted. Carol said something about it at the memorial service we had for you.”

“What?” Patsy accidentally blurted, surprised by their morbid bluntness.

“They thought I died,” Vera said with another shrug. “It was actually Sgt. Hill who identified me and told everyone.”

Patsy had so many questioned for her but was trying to shut off Nurse Mount and just be Patsy. Vera seemed to notice and smiled at her.

“It was a lot of recovery and periods of unknowing but it all ended up rather well,” Vera told her.

“It can for you too,” Marco stated.

Patsy only nodded. She still wasn’t sure how much Delia remembered about her. She was desperately hoping for another letter to arrived. With the last one she sent to a Delia, she included an itinerary and the addresses for each place she was staying.

“Just like old times, eh Teresa?” Betty joked as Patsy wiped off the last of the blood.

She shook her head at her. “I really hope for Kate’s sake you are safer now.”

“Mostly,” Kate said as she put her hand on Betty’s shoulder and kissed her on the forehead.

A few hours later, they had all settled into the hotel a block or so away from the base. Everyone was dancing in Kate and Betty’s incredibly large room as the three boys who played at the first after party Patsy attended with Delia were playing. Patsy now knew them as Leon Jr., Eddie and Skip; Leon’s son, the boss from the factory days’ grandson and the son of a factory friend.

Betty had been dancing with Kate, Patsy and Leon when she heard a knock on the door. She got Kate’s attention and tapped her on the shoulder while motioning to the door. It was a common signal for them. Kate nodded and went to tap the shoulders of two of her backup signers and Eddie’s friend, who was in the crowd with Marco and Vera.

Betty went to answer the door and saw the young, nervously looking bellhop.

“Hello, I…” he trailed off trying to think of the words.

“Deutsch ist gut,” Betty said, telling him she spoke German.

He sighed in relief.

“Ganz gut. I habe eine Brief fuer Frauline Mount. Sie sagen es sehr wichtig sein,” he told he held out an envelope.

“Danke schon,” Betty replied, talking the letter and handing over a tip for the boy.

Betty headed back into the dancing crowd and found Patsy being twirled around by Kate. Betty laughed through a smile when she approached them.

“You two havin’ a good time?” she asked.

“What does it look like?” Kate stated.

“Well, I’m here to make it better, for Patsy at least,” she stand holding out the letter.

“Oh,” Patsy exclaimed when she saw it. She recognized the way her own name was written on it. It was Delia’s handwriting, which was slightly different than it had been before.

Kate looked just as excited. “Go to your room and read it. Rejoin us when you are ready.”

Patsy nodded vigorously and then traveled a few doors down the hall to her room. She sat on the bed again and opened the letter. She took a moment to calm her anxious and slightly drunken nerves and looked down at the letter.

_Dear Patsy,_

_I have written that on about 15 different pieces of paper with different starting sentences. I tore them all up and threw them away because I am still not sure if I know how I want to start this._

_I seem to have remembered, well I hope it is a memory, something since your last letter. Maybe remembered is the wrong word, I guess I just realized. You kept saying we were friends but it was more than that wasn’t it? Was this the reason why my mother and I didn’t get along?_

_Were you and I together? Like courting or going steady or girlfriends? Did we have our own name for it? Did I live with you in London?_

_I can’t remember those things. But, I remember how I feel about you and what we were to each other. I think, I hope all of this is true._

_I hope I am not misunderstanding my feelings. Even if what my connection to you feels like is wrong, I hope we can still be friends and write._

_I’ve told you I don’t recognize Wales or my mother. My doctors have tried a bunch of different methods but only your letters, Kate Andrews’ song and my loud mouth little cousin have seemed to help. All that had helped me realize when you wrote friend you meant something different. I truly hope I haven’t said too much._

_The only thing that has made me feel like I was a person before all of this is you._

_Write soon,  
Delia _

Patsy looked up from the letter and quickly shook her head a few times. She didn’t want to cry, but she felt so close to tears. Delia’s letter was perfect. It was exactly what she hoped she would realize without her having to tell her. Delia seemed to be struggling a bit with the realization, which was a strange role reversal for Patsy to find herself in.

_Dear Delia,_

_We were more than friends. I am so glad you remembered or realized or whichever. I just feel so much better that you know. I am sorry I wrote friend so much in those earlier letters. I know you probably didn’t see it as a lie at the time but I felt like it was. I never wanted to lie to you._

_This was why you and your mother didn’t get along. She didn’t know about you and me but she knew that you didn’t show a fancy toward men. I think she guessed it about me at the hospital in London, so maybe she does know about us. If so it is my fault and I am sorry about that. I did a terrible job at pretending we were just friends after your accident._

_We never really was called it anything. We would say dating sometimes. Some friends of ours have taken to calling you my lady friend. Maybe now would be a good time to pick what we like._

_We hadn’t started living together before. We had a flat we started renting about a day and a half before. We didn’t even get to spend a night together in it. We had just began to fix it up._

_I’m glad my letters have helped. Yours have been a comfort to me also. I miss you. Hope to hear from you soon._

_Yours truly,  
Patsy_

_Dear Patsy,_

_I figured my feelings were right but I was still so nervous to tell you, which seems so silly now._

_How long were we girlfriends? All I can remember is two and a half. Years seems to make more sense than months. But I’m not sure._

_And I like girlfriends. That was what came to me when I realized. My cousin joked that we should call it steady forever or at least he thinks his brother should call it that. Turns out I’m not the only member of the family with a “friend.”_

_I know you are traveling but do you have any other Kate Andrews records you could lend me? I have no idea where is the closest place I could buy one. I get why I like her so much now. She is using “friend” like how you were._

_I feel like I have asked so much of you already, but I really want to see you. I have since your first letter and so much more now. Would you be able to come to Wales or maybe we could meet in the middle somewhere?_

_I miss you too,  
Delia_

_Dear Delia,_

_I like girlfriends too. It feels right. You are correct, it has been two and a half years._

_I hope the Kate Andrews record arrived with this too. It is the other one you lent to me. I can send more if you wish. It will not be hard for me to find them. I am actually traveling with Kate Andrews’ tour right now. She is a friend of mine. You and I met her and her friend once before._

_I would love to see you but I’m not sure if it would be possible for a while. You should not travel too far, especially not alone it would be too dangerous. I’m not sure when I will be back in London but I can see if I can when I am._

_I don’t know where I could met you though. Your mother told me she didn’t want me to visit you when I met her at hospital. At the time I thought it was because of your condition but looking back maybe she caught onto us. I am sorry if I have caused any trouble for you._

_I was usually good at pretending. But nearly losing you stole all my hiding skills. I couldn’t be happier that I have you back._

_Love,  
Patsy_

_Dear Patsy,_

_Are you joking with me? That isn’t very nice. You cannot be traveling with Kate Andrews._

_What about Cardiff? Could you travel to Cardiff once you get back from whatever your travels truly are?_

_It is not that far from my family’s farmhouse. Only a two hour or so train ride. You are sweet to be worrying about me but, I wouldn’t be going alone. My little cousin has been wanting to go visit his brother there and he wants me to come with him._

_It is fine if you are not able to, but I hope you can._

_I am happy I found my way back to you._

_Love,  
Delia _

Patsy heard a knock on the door of her Zurich hotel room. She was seated at the desk, reading the letter for the third time.

“Yes,” she called.

“Hello,” Kate said as she walked over to her. She held up her record, “The copy of 'The Worst Way’ that you ordered. Did you still want me to write something on this?”

Patsy nodded with a smile. “Delia won’t believe me that I am traveling with you.”

“So, she doesn’t remember meeting me?” Kate asked softly.

Patsy shook her head. “No and I guess being told I am traveling with her favorite singer would sound a bit mad.”

Kate blushed a little when Patsy said she was Delia’s favorite.

She then perked up with an idea and took up the marker from the desk. She leaned over the record and wrote on the front.

“How is that?” Kate said leaning aside for her to see.

_She is telling the truth - Kate Andrews_

Patsy laughed. “It is perfect. Thank you.”

“How is Delia doing, aside from accusing you of lying?” Kate asked as she leaned back against the desk beside Patsy’s chair.

“Much better,” Patsy said happily but then her emotions slipped through. “She wants me to visit her but I’m not sure if it is possible. I would love to and I don’t want to tell her no but I doubt my boss would fancy me leaving shortly after I get back to London.”

“Where does she want you to visit her?” Kate inquired.

“Cardiff,” Patsy replied. “She has a cousin that lives there. I couldn’t go to her house to see her. I think her mother dislikes me.”

“Cardiff is a good sized city,” Kate said as if she was thinking something though. “I haven’t been to Wales in a while. It was the only part of the UK we didn’t get to. And we will be flying back to Toronto out of London, so it would make sense for us to already be nearby.”

Patsy looked up at her in shock. “What?” she asked just above a whisper.

“Write her back. Tell her you are going to be in Cardiff in two weeks when I do a leg in Wales,” Kate said simply.

Patsy welled up but tried to hide it. Kate reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Why are you…?” Patsy started to ask but realized she had asked the same of Betty once. She assumed their answers would be the same. The world needed role models and heroes.

Kate smiled widely. “I was a bit slow to realizing what Betty and I felt before we got together. She has probably told you.”

“Vera and Marco have,” Patsy answered.

Kate giggled a bit. “Of course, they have. Anyway, I was trapped for a while. It was a bit like Delia is, away from my friends, home, true family and those who actually loved me. I was constantly thinking about Betty and how horrible I had been to her the last night I saw her. She had been so sweet and honest and caring. She found me about three months later, on a street corner. She just appeared out of nowhere. It was one if the most romantic things she has ever done,” Kate told her with a smile.

“'Street Corner Fire’?” Patsy inquired feeling like she finally understand the song.

Kate nodded. “I can see how much you have been missing Delia. I know you’d never voice it. You’re a lot like Betty that way. You have probably already won back Delia, but a grand romantic gesture sure will not hurt.”

“How could I ever repay you for any of this?” Patsy asked, barely able to keep track of everything Kate and Betty had done for her.

Kate shrugged. “Maybe I will think of something later, but for right now come to dinner with Betty and me. We are meeting Vera and Marco at some fancy place Gladys recommended.”

“So, Wales then?” Betty asked as she, Kate and Patsy were walking down a darkened street to the restaurant.

“We would not be lengthening the tour that much,” Kate offered. “We did well in the other UK cities, I’m sure Wales will not be any different.”

Betty smirked. “That’s your reasoning for Marco and Vera, who are going to have to organize this on short notice. Your real reason is…”

“The night before Valentine’s Day.”

“Delia asked me to come.”

Betty laughed as they answered at the same time. “I knew it.”

“We do not have to go if it will be too much of a problem,” Patsy said nervously, looking across Kate to Betty. “I could possibly convin–”

“Don’t be silly, darling,” Kate told her. “I am already set on going and I am the star, aren’t I?” Kate joked.

“Umm, yeah. Cause you are always such a diva on tour?” Betty suggestively teased.

“Well, how else would I entice such beautiful groupies?” Kate flirted back.

“I’m just your biggest fan, Kate Andrews,” Betty said, kissing Kate to hide that she was beginning to laugh through her joking front.

“I would keep it quiet that this is the treatment of your biggest fan,” Patsy replied with a smile. “There might start to be more of a competition.”

Kate began to laugh, as Betty pulled away and they started walking again.

They passed a group of three men, leaning against the wall of one of the buildings smoking. They shouted something in German at them.

Only Betty understood them, but Kate and Patsy could tell it was a lude remark.

“Nein danke, asshole,” Betty replied.

“Really? I could change your mind,” one of them shouted back in German.

“I doubt that,” Betty replied forcefully in German. She felt Kate touch her arm, as if she was starting to get concerned. Betty kept her focus on the men.

“She might be too far gone,” the second one said. “We can make do with the other two.”

“You’re the drunkest,” the first said pointing to the one that happened spoken. “You can take the older one and we get the younger one.”

Kate knew only a few words of German, none of which they had used. But she had been in enough of these situations over the years that she could assume where this was going. Patsy was standing behind her, looking scared.

“Let’s just go,” Kate said trying to grab Betty’s shoulders.

But, she had moved toward the first man.

“They ain’t interested neither,” Betty angrily yelled in English.

“Queer and American. I am not sure which worse,” he said in slow English.

“We ain’t Americans. There isn’t a reason for the other thing to be botherin’ you. You got to resort to yelling at ladies in alleys, I doubt us queers are your problem,” Betty hissed at him in disgust.

He threw down his cigarette and took a step toward her.

“Betty, don’t,” Kate pleaded.

“Ja, listen to your schlumpe,” he shot at Betty.

That was all she could calmly take. She clocked him in the jaw, landed a few upper cuts to his ribs and pounded a left cross to his face. He hit the wall behind him with a thud and slumped to the ground.

“You wanna be next?” she taunted the other two.

The quiet one took off down the street. The second watched him go with a mix of worry and disgust. He then turned to Betty and pulled a switch blade out of his pocket. He pointed it at Betty.

“Betty!” Kate called concerned, as Patsy gasped beside her.

“That’s cheatin’” Betty taunted.

He started swinging the knife at her. She quickly dodged it each time. She laughed a bit.

“You have no idea who you’re messin’ with,” Betty said.

He swung the knife at her again. She dodged it and then landed a punch on his face. She took a step closer and hit him again and again. He stumbled back and then jabbed the knife at her. She grunted in pain, sliding back for a moment before unloading on him until he tumbled over.

Kate grasped as Betty collapsed. Patsy run up and was able to catch her right before she hit the ground. She laid her down on the street. She heard approaching footsteps and frantic German but ignored it as she tended to Betty.

“It isn’t that deep,” Patsy said examining the wound. “I will just need to clean it and bandage it and she will be fine.”

Betty reached up and put her hand on Patsy’s face. “You are good to have around.”

Patsy had to shake her head that she was still teasing in this situation. Betty was about to say something to Kate when the third man and a handful of police officers ran at them. They started shouting orders in German.

One pulled away a protesting Kate. Patsy quickly tried to start attending to Betty, but then one of the officers grabbed her around the waist and pulled her away.

“I’m a nurse,” she protested. “She needs medical attention.”

She was pushed outside what had been deemed the crime scene and found herself beside Kate. Patsy looked to her with a sense of desperation and confusion.

“She will be fine,” Kate said more to reassure herself. “It was all self-defense and…and I’ll get her bond posted in the morning. Y-you might need to pay special attention to that stab wound when she is released. She knows how to dress a wound in prison but not very well.”

Patsy just nodded at her, not sure how to respond. Based on what she had been told and Kate’s words, this was not the first time something like this had happened. But, Kate seemed to need more help then she could provide.

“Let’s find Vera and Marco,” Patsy suggested, hoping they would be more help than her.

Kate just nodded. She motioned for Patsy to follow her through the now person-less crime scene.

Three hours later, the holding cell guards let a posh woman walk right past them. She had already been meeting with some of the officers and the guards had been told if they saw her to just let her pass.

“You owe me, Betts,” Gladys stated as she came into Betty’s view.

Betty leaned over with a laugh. She winced and re-adjusted her makeshift bandage. She shook her head at her as she stood up. The guard unlocked the door, sliding it opened and letting her out.

“What would I do without you, Princess?” Betty replied as she hugged Gladys just outside the holding cell.

“Probably spend the rest of your life in prison,” Gladys half-scolded. “I would be cross with you but I have already been told by a handful of people about how you heroically defended Kate.”

Betty shrugged. “Guess it was a little too heroic since I ended up here.”

“Well, so did they,” Gladys told her.

“They ain’t going to press charges?” Betty asked as they passed another guard, getting closer to the front entrance.

“They were persuaded not to, along with the officer who saw you 'make a pass at a redhead’,” Gladys said quietly as she flashed a smile to the guard who opened the front door for them.

“That wasn’t even Kate. Regardless, it sure is nice to have you back, Princess,” Betty told her. “You staying with us for a while?”

She nodded. “I’ve been told we are going to Wales. That is a change in plans.”

Betty grinned. “It was Kate’s idea. We are helping some kids with a grand romantic gesture."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patsy and Delia meet up for the first time since Delia’s accident and have their first bit of true alone time.

“Another round, please?” Gladys waved at the waitress as she sat at Patsy’s table in the Cardiff hotel bar.

“I hope you are not here by yourself,” Gladys stated with a smile.

Patsy shook her head, though she had been for about 15 minutes. She glanced around the bar. “I’m not. Betty and Kate are somewhere.”

Gladys laughed. “Special locker room time,” she said, while thanking the waitress for their drinks.

Patsy raised an eyebrow at her.

“The name doesn’t work as well as it did at the factory. We started calling it that shortly after they started dating. They would disappear to the locker room rather often,” Gladys explained.

“Ah, I see.”

“They are probably in the restroom.”

“Not up in their room?” Patsy questioned.

“There as always been a bit of habit and recklessness with those two,” Gladys stated.

She coughed on her wine. “Oh my, that was careless to say. Thank you for taking care of them.”

“I barely helped before the police pushed me away,” Patsy admitted.

“Even still. Thank you.”

Betty’s stab wound wasn’t that bad. Patsy was able to treat it herself and she was almost healed now.

“So is everything set for your visit?” Gladys asked. She had been all caught up on what had happened but this was her first time speaking directly to Patsy.

She nodded. “We are meeting in the city for lunch tomorrow. She has a cousin who lives in Cardiff so visiting him is her excuse.”

“Only lunch?” Gladys cheekily asked.

Patsy smiled. “If it goes well, I plan to invite her to Kate’s show.” Betty and Kate had shoved two tickets at her as soon as they got them.

“I’m sure it will,” Gladys replied encouragingly.

“Delia, hurry, hurry come back,” Delia heard her cousin shout as she walked back into the train.

“Bloody hell, Des. I was only in the lou,” Delia said as she sat back down beside him.

“We are almost there,” he stated, nearly jumping out of his seat toward the window.

He had been about this excited since she told him she would go to Cardiff with him. He wanted to visit his older brother and traveling without his mother was so much more fun. Delia didn’t mind. She needed an excuse to go to Cardiff and this was just as good as any other she had come up with.

The train pulled into the Cardiff station and Delia had to hold Desmond back in his seat. She was surprised she had overestimated his age to 12, instead of 10, because he was seeming more like a toddler in the moment.

“I don’t think you are excited enough,” Howell, Delia assumed, said as his little brother slammed into his arms.

Desmond then moved onto the man beside his brother, who Delia guessed, was Lloyd.

Howell looked over to Delia with a smile but she could see the sadness in his eyes.

“We stole a bottle of whiskey from my parents and drank it behind my house after grand dad’s funeral,” she blurted.

“The barn, but yeah we did,” Howell answered. “I thought you didn’t…”

“I don’t,” Delia replied. “Things come in pieces sometimes. It helps to say them out loud.”

He smiled again. “Well I am happy to be the barn whiskey cousin for now.”

“I have actually been told a lot about you,” Delia admitted.

“From this one?” Howell said, motioning at Desmond, who was excitedly telling Lloyd something.

“No from my mother,” Delia joked.

“I see you picked up on that,” Howell replies with a laugh.

“It wasn’t that hard.”

“Can we go to your flat now?” Desmond asked his brother.

“Sure, lead the way,” Howell replied.

He looked up at Lloyd with a sense of worry. He nodded, letting him know he would help with navigation.

Delia and Howell walked in silence for a while behind Lloyd and Desmond, who hadn’t stopped talking.

“I’m glad you and Patsy are still together,” Howell leaned over and said quietly.

Delia blushed and stumbled to respond.

“Wow, Deels. Clearly you don’t have to be nervous around us,” Howell stated, raising an eyebrow at her as he motioned in front of them.

“Of course,” Delia replied, realizing she should have known that but she was still nervous about…well she wasn’t even sure. The wrong people finding out?

“So you have met her?” Delia asked, assuming she had talked about her more with him than his brother.

He looked sad again at being told she didn’t remember. “Not really,” he shrugged. “I visited you almost two years ago in London. All the workers from your hospital were drinking at this pub. I tagged along with you. She was there and I spotted what was going on with you two pretty quickly,” he said with a smile. “But I only met her the once.”

“Do you make some cheeky comment when I introduced her as my friend?” Delia questioned.

“I did,” he answered impressed. “You remember that?”

“No,” Delia admitted. “But I remember knowing that is something you would probably do.”

“Just as good then,” he said with a laugh.

They turned the corner and Howell noticed Delia staring anxiously down the street. The cafe he and Lloyd always took Desmond was that way. He assumed Delia used his suggestion to meet there.

“Don’t be too nervous about tomorrow,” he said encouragingly. “You guys have been going strong for more than two years.”

“Yeah and she remembers it. All I got is a single meeting in the hospital and a series of letters and records,” she countered.

“She agreed to met you, it seems like she don’t mind,” he added.

“Would you?“she asked.

Howell looked up at Lloyd who was handing over the keys and letting Desmond unlock the door to their flat.

"No, I wouldn’t,” he answered.

Patsy got to the cafe early and chose a seat by the door.

She had attempted to sneak out of the hotel without anyone noticing her. She had had more than enough words of encouragement and reassurance from everyone the night before. She didn’t know if she could stomach anymore. But of course her plan failed. But it was only Betty, who was smoking outside the hotel entrance.

“Good luck, kid,” she said simply.

Patsy had just nodded at her. Now she was sitting alone in the cafe on her second cup of tea, waiting.

She was rehearsing what she would say to Delia in her head again. She had been for hours but she still hadn’t decided on anything. She knew what she would say if it was the old Delia. Nothing. Delia would say something as soon as she arrived.

Patsy didn’t know how to greet this Delia, the one she knew through letters and a single poorly meeting. At least it could not be any worst than that, Patsy thought.

She glanced up at the doorway.

Delia, her Delia, was standing in the doorway of the cafe. She looked just as she had on the street outside of their flat just before. Patsy could barely breathe, part of it was the shock and part of it was the melting feeling she got every time she saw her.

She quickly stood to greet her. Too quickly. She banged her knee on the underside of the table. She then nearly fell as her empty tea cup toppled over and the vase of flowers started to fall. Delia rushed over and steadied the vase.

“That happy to see me, are you?” Delia said, taking her hands off the vase and smiling up at Patsy.

“Apparently,” Patsy replied cheerfully.

“Is it safe for me to sit?” Delia joked.

“I hope so,” Patsy said. She waited for Delia to sit first and then did herself.

For a while they didn’t say anything to each other. They ordered and kept looking at each other and smiling and laughing.

“I’m afraid I thought too much about what I wanted to say and now my mind is blank,” Patsy admitted when their food arrived.

“I’m still trying to convince myself you are really you,” Delia said.

Patsy looked at her and raised an eyebrow. Delia blushed when she realized how intensely Patsy was gazing at her.

“I feel like I’m meeting you in person for the first time,” Delia admitted nervously glancing done at the table every few seconds. “I remember meeting you in the hospital and I remember more about you now. But for so long you were just a name, a name at the bottom of a letter. I’d…” Delia glanced around and then whispered, “fallen in love with that. And now you’re here and it seems strange how much more than a name everything is.”

Patsy couldn’t get herself to focus on anything beside how beautiful she and her words were long enough to formulate a response.

Delia sank into her chair. “Oh god, should I not be saying these things in public?”

Patsy had to shake her head to herself, this girl wasn’t going to give her heart a moment’s rest.

“I would not worry too much about it,” Patsy said with a smile. “I just became too caught up in well, you to answer.”

Delia smiled and looked like she wanted to respond, but then she anxiously gazed around the cafe and didn’t.

Patsy was relieved Delia was looking at the table and didn’t see the look of bewilderment on her face. She had started to defer it from the letters but seeing it made it clear to Patsy how their roles had switched. Patsy had always seen Delia as the brave one, the one who wasn’t afraid of others finding out or seeing and could hardly bare to hide. Now, it was her place.

“Would you like to go somewhere more private?” Patsy asked softly.

Delia looked up at her and smiled. “Got a place in mind?”

“I have a hotel room,” Patsy offered.

“Oh right because you are touring around with Kate Andrews,” Delia replied with joking skepticism.

Patsy stood and managed to not knock anything over that time. “Come with me and in a few hours I will take you to her show and introduce you to her.”

Delia’s eyes light up with excitement. "Really? You could? I mean I sort of thought you were traveling with her but you like actually know her?“

Patsy nodded with a grinned. "Thanks to you I do.”

“Is that something we would do pretty often?” Delia asked Patsy as she unlocked the door to her hotel room.

“No,” Patsy said as they stepped inside. She had been telling her about the night they met Kate, Betty and Gladys.

“Why not?” Delia asked as she gazed around the hotel room and then went to sit in the edge of the bed.

Patsy shrugged. She remained by the door for a moment and then sat on the chair across from Delia.

“I was always too nervous,” she admitted.

Delia laughed but then saw Patsy’s confused and possibly offended expression.

“Oh god, seriously?”

Patsy nodded.

“Sorry. I thought you must have been joking. You are so brave about everything,” Delia added.

Patsy had to smile a bit. “A lot has happened.”

“With me?” Delia asked, feeling guilty but now sure why.

“Yes,” Patsy said leaning closer to her. “But not the way you are thinking. I wanted to be braver for you. I could handle all the lying and the hiding. I had grown accustom to it.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Delia asked wonderingly.

“Perhaps, but I can’t do it anymore.”

“Why not?”

Patsy stared at the ground between them for a moment and held back a tear as she looked up at Delia. “Because I almost lost you. And I wanted everything you always did, to tell people, share experiences, have others to turn to and not be afraid of the outcomes.”

“You must have found it,” Delia said.

Patsy half smiled and nodded. “It found me. They found me. Kate Andrews asked me to travel with her tour. I have spent months surrounded by people who don’t mind or understand perfectly. I’m not an outcast or even a minority sometimes. I can just be myself and that can be the British nurse or the London kid with the Welsh girlfriend. That much support can make anyone brave.

"I know it can’t be like that all the time but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be and it isn’t going to stop me from trying to create it. I don’t know if you want it anymore but I want it for you.”

Patsy’s eyes met hers at the last moment. Delia could fully feel the intensity of their connection though she knew it was longer than she remembered. Patsy was looking at her like she was the only person in the world that mattered and Delia was feeling the same about her.

Suddenly her mind flooded with a memory of seeing Patsy in a nurse’s uniform in a hospital hallway, yelling orders as blooding men were being rushed past her.

She then spotted Delia, huffed as she walked towards her and lead her into a washroom to clean herself up.

Delia thoughts in the memory matched her thoughts in the moment.

“I really want to kiss you. Can I kiss you?” Delia asked through heavy breathes.

Patsy got up from her chair. Delia stood too and helped close the gap between them. Patsy put her hands on the sides of Delia’s neck.

“You don’t have to ask,” Patsy exhaled as her lips met Delia’s.

Delia felt so close to melting and exploding that she was relieved when her knees gave out and she feel back onto the bed. Patsy came with her and barely reacted. Delia was finally able to get her arms to move and ran her hands down Patsy’s back as she started kissing down her neck.

Delia struggled to breathe as Patsy got closer to the collar of her dress. Her mouth than found it’s way back to hers. Delia was left wondering if the familiarity, mixed with the mind-blowing intensity, was her remembering or just an extension of how right everything felt when she was with Patsy.

One of Patsy’s hands made it’s way down the front of her dress. She moved her hand under the hem and slowly lead it up Delia’s thigh. Patsy stopped kissing her and held her face just above hers.

Delia opened her eyes and could see the anxiousness in Patsy’s.

“We never have, have we?” Delia asked quietly, surprised that she even knew what Patsy was asking. Was that memory or instinct?

“No,” Patsy admitted. “We’ve never had this much privacy and we wanted it to be–”

“Special and in a proper location,” Delia finished. Now that was a memory.

“Yes,” Patsy added. She laid on the bed beside Delia and placed an arm around her. Delia curled into her and placed her head on her shoulder.

Patsy was glad she couldn’t see her face while she remembered planning with Delia the day of the accident how their first time in their flat would be.

“I don’t want to stay here,” Delia stated wistfully.

“What?” Patsy blurted taken aback and confused.

“Gosh not like that, you fool,” Delia replied as she turned and kissed Patsy’s neck. “I meant here, in Wales. I don’t want to be anywhere without you.”

Patsy smiled. The day had gone perfectly. “We have a flat in London. Come back to London with me.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delia and Patsy get some words of encouragement from Kate Andrews and then face Delia’s mother about Delia moving back to London with Patsy.

“Oh darling, are you sure about this?” Patsy asked breathlessly as Delia pushed her against the wall.

“No,” Delia replied honestly. “Earlier today I had no idea that I needed this. Now, I just know I want it. Be brave, right?”

Patsy let herself be pulled into the heat and intensity of the kiss. Delia had her pushed up against the wall in one of the restroom stalls for a while now. Delia had a sense of confidence and roughness she didn’t have in the hotel earlier. Patsy figured it was from the excitement of being at a Kate Andrews concert, getting invited to the after party at a club deemed safe for everyone and the three or four, Patsy lost count, drinks she had had.

Delia had certainly given into her liquid courage. She had been running her hands up and down the bare skin under Patsy’s blouse since the moment she locked the stall door behind them. Delia then ran her hand lower into the front of her trousers and then even lower.

“Delia,” Patsy was able to choke out before the feeling hit her throat and left her struggling for breath. “Special time, proper place,” she said quickly and high pitched as she guided Delia’s hands to a more appropriate place.

But, Patsy wasn’t able to find a place that felt acceptable and took a step back from her.

“We should really rejoin everyone,” Patsy stated.

“Oofph! Hope I am not interrupting something ladies,” Vera stated as they walked out of the stall. She was re-applying her eye makeup while sipping a drink at the sinks.

Patsy waited for Delia to get embarrassed so she could swoop in and save her but she barely blushed.

“A welcomed interruption or someone might have gotten out of hand,” Patsy admitted cheerily as Delia clung to her arm.

Vera started to laugh and struggled to hide her glee as she looked up from Delia to Patsy with a smile.

“I heard Betty and Kate talking of going to the hot dog stand down the street pretty soon. Might as well hurry and catch them. Seems that one needs some food,” Vera suggested, finishing her makeup and her drink.

Patsy sighed relived. “Thank you.”

“London kids! Hot dogs?” Betty asked pointing at them when they reached the street outside the bar.

“Yes! Thank you for waiting,” Patsy replied.

Betty nodded at her with a smile on her face. Patsy then noticed Kate was also smiling at her.

“Hi, I don’t think we have been properly introduced,” Kate said holding out her hand to Delia. “I’m Kate Andrews.”

“Shit, yeah. I know,” Delia blurted through her excitement. “I-I…your records…I’ve…”

Betty chuckled a bit and Patsy smiled. It was the sense of amusement most people on the tour got from watching fans loss it over meeting Kate. Newer friends, like Patsy, understood perfectly. The old friends who met Kate as a nervous factory girl with a spotty back story found it hilarious.

Kate smiled at Delia. They were walking a few steps ahead of Betty and Patsy.

“Relax, sweetie,” Kate said to Delia, as she watched her hands shake slightly and the quickly glance over her shoulder at Patsy. “I’m not that exciting.”

Delia looked at her and nervously laughed. “No, I mean yes you are. I have been constantly listening to your records in my room and now I’m just walking down the street with you. But that’s not the why I’m nervous,” Delia rambled.

Kate smiled. “I know. Any way I could help?”

Delia hesitated for a moment, but the street was nearly empty, she was with Kate Andrews and Patsy had said something about her girlfriend being a prize fighter or something like that.

“When did you become brave enough to stop caring what people think?” Delia asked quietly.

Kate thought that was what she might ask. Patsy had told her and Betty that Delia was more nervous about it now than she had been. Kate decided she would just tell her the whole story. She pretty much did before when she just listed off song titles and watched in amusement as Delia the super fan made all the connections.

“After I ran scared twice and late once,” Kate said.

“‘Scared twice, late once?’” Delia repeated as she slowly made the connection.

Kate nodded. She helped Patsy pick which records to send Delia and thought that one would be a good choice. It was a single she recorded for a homosexual rights group in New York just before she left for the tour.

“Piano misconnection and something with fiery lights?” Delia was struggling to remember the words. The song wasn’t one of her favorites as of yet.

Kate nodded. “She kissed me.”

“And you weren’t ready?” Delia asked.

Kate smirked to herself. “No that wasn’t the reason I ran, not that time. I was scared. It wasn’t because she was a girl or that people were around. It was me I was afraid of. I was afraid of how much I enjoyed it.”

Delia felt confused. She understood. She had felt afraid too, part of her still did, but she couldn’t work out a reason. “Why?”

“My father wasn’t a very good man. He used to tell me it was a sin and made sure I knew it was. At the time I couldn’t tell the difference between what he said was him loving me and what Betty had been doing. So, I ran back to him.” Kate smiled, “Then Betty found me and brought me back home. But, I was still scared and I wasn’t ready. So I ran from her again to this sweet, stupid boy we had passed around.

“I finally got the confidence after I lost everything. The boy left me, not that I minded. But, Betty,” Kate took a deep breath and smiled, “she went to prison for me.”

Delia knew she should be shocked, but she didn’t feel it. Did she already know that? Or maybe it was because she felt her heart jump as she predicted the familiarity of what Kate was about to say.

“And I was left standing in the same spot I had been for so long. I was finally ready for Betty to be beside me, but I had waited too long. So, I stopped caring, being scared and acting like I thought I should. I wanted to be strong for when Betty returned,” Kate said softly.

She saw the look in Delia’s eyes and knew that had been the answer she was looking for.

“I don’t know if I’m at that point yet,” Delia admitted softly.

“It takes time and Patsy understands that,” Kate reassured her. “Just make sure you are before the police get involved.”

Delia laughed. “Well, I don’t think I have committed any crimes.”

“That you remember,” Patsy added as she and Betty stepped behind Delia and Kate as they reached the hot dog stand’s line.

Delia turned around and was hesitant to smile.

“You haven’t,” Patsy clarified with a smile.

“That was unfair you know, scaring me like that,” Delia shot back at her.

Patsy just grinned. Kate stepped back and let them order together.

“You are amazing,” Betty leaned over to Kate and said. They were walking back to the club now. Delia and Patsy were ahead of them, both eating their hot dogs.

“Thank you but could you be more specific,” Kate replied with a straight face.

Betty laughed. “This plan, to help the kids.”

Kate nodded in agreement. “Delia still seems a bit nervous but she’s not going to run.”

“Nah, opposite,” Betty said. “Patsy said she’s going back to London with her.”

Kate gazed at Betty with excitement.

“Yeah,” Betty nodded. “Patsy going to go home with her to explain to her parents and then they are going off to London. You’re amazing.”

“I got the idea from you. You’re the sappy romantic,” Kate teased her.

“You going to pretend you don’t love it, Miss Andrews?”

The next afternoon, Delia nervously grabbed for Patsy’s hand as the train pulled closer to her town’s station. Patsy had her coat on her lap and moved it over their hands.

“Girls can hold hands,” Desmond stated from his seat across from them. He had spent most of the time looking out the window and ignoring them completely.

“Thanks, Des,” Delia replied with a sigh.

Patsy smiled at her annoyance.

“Oh, is this one of those difference in perspective things that I ‘can’t’ understand yet?” Desmond asked. “Howell always says stuff like that.”

“He’s smart,” Delia replied.

He nodded in agreement and turned back to the window. Delia squeezed Patsy hand under the coat.

“We are almost there,” Delia said, just as the announcement was made.

“You go first,” Patsy said when the train stopped. “I’ll get the bags.”

Delia nodded. She wanted a chance to explain herself to her mother, since she didn’t know Patsy was coming back with her. Her family really did need a telephone.

Patsy watched from the train window as Delia greeted her mother and aunt. She saw Delia’s mother’s face drop in concern and Delia nervously turned back to the train. Patsy figured that was her cue.

She walked off the train with the bags. She hadn’t felt very nervous until that moment. She pretty much ran away from Mrs. Busby the last and only time they met. She had been too unknowing and flippant for Patsy to handle then. She felt stronger now and hoped it would hold up.

“Hello Mrs. Busby,” Patsy said with a smile when she reached them.

“Hello again…” she started.

“Patsy,” Desmond added, his face showing he found it odd that she didn’t know her name.

Delia’s aunt seemed to read the tension and hurried everyone to the car. Delia nudged Desmond to sit between her and Patsy in the back. He found it a fair choice since he was the shortest.

Patsy smiled when she saw the blue farmhouse in the distance when Delia’s aunt pulled off the main road. She turned to look at Delia. Her gaze was fixed out the other window, probably to avoid her Mother’s gaze from the passenger seat.

Patsy’s smile faded and she turned back to look at the house. She realized it had not matter that Delia didn’t see her. Delia had told her so much about the house she grew up in before. Now, she barely remembered it.

“Have you been here before?” Desmond asked, apparently he saw her.

“No,” Patsy said. “Delia had just told me about it.”

“I have?” Delia turned to them and asked.

“Just a few times,” Patsy answered.

“Are you going to come for Christmas?” Desmond asked excited. “After Howell brought Llyod home for the first time, he started coming for Christmas.”

Delia’s face went red and Patsy thought she heard Mrs. Busby scoff or gasp from the front seat.

“We will have to see,” Patsy replied, taking longer than she would have liked to think of an acceptable answer.

Delia stood nervously outside of her aunt’s car and stared at her house. Her mother had already gone inside, she couldn’t seem to get away from her fast enough.

“What if this was all a horrible mistake?” Delia asked Patsy when she stood beside her, bags in hand and friendly goodbyes given to her aunt and cousin.

Patsy simply shrugged. “I’ll try my best, but I also cannot promise anything.”

Delia smiled at her and then entered her house. Patsy cautiously followed behind. They followed Delia’s mother into the kitchen. Delia stated they both would like tea. She sat at the kitchen table and Patsy thought sitting beside her seemed like the best option.

“How long is your friend planning on staying with us, Delia?” Her mother asked while pouring the tea.

Patsy and Delia both picked up on the mean slant she added to 'friend’. Delia pressed her lips together to hold back her tears. Patsy would have been fine but saw her and then was forced to do the same.

'Be brave, yeah?’ Patsy mouthed Delia’s words to her from across the table.

“Not long,” Delia told her. “We-I am going to go back to London with her.”

Delia’s mother quickly turned away from the tea cups on the counter and glared at her.

“Do you think you can just leave?” Delia’s mother questioned.

Delia didn’t respond. Patsy glanced at her and then realized she wasn’t moving.

“Just abandon your family on a whim again?” Delia’s mother offered up.

“Deels?” Patsy asked concerned.

Delia didn’t react to either comment.

“Have nothing to say, do you?” her mother called.

Patsy ignored Mrs. Busby, got out of her chair and knelt beside Delia’s.

“Delia?” Patsy asked into her girlfriend’s blank face. Patsy placed her hands around Delia’s torso.

“Miss Mount!” Delia’s mother exclaimed.

Patsy would have been more angry if she was less concerned. “I am not being forward, Mrs. Busby. I think she is having a seizure.”

Just then Delia started shaking and jerking in her chair. Patsy guided her the best she could out of her chair and into the floor. Patsy got her to the ground. She took her hands away and let Delia shake freely.

Mrs. Busby protested, but Patsy told her it was the best way. Patsy covered her tear stricken face with her hand and breathed heavily into her palm.

Patsy noticed when she went limp about a minute later and when she struggled to open her eyes a few minutes later.

Delia looked up at Patsy with strained breath and confusion. Her eyes darted around for a moment and then met hers.

“Patsy?” Delia asked in tear-filled concern.

Patsy nodded frantically. “Yes, darling,” she replied.

Delia’s mother appeared at her other side. Patsy pulled herself back from going in to kiss Delia on the cheek. Delia let her mother embrace her without protest and then looked up at Patsy in need. She nodded.

“She should rest,” Patsy announced. “I suggest she goes to her bedroom.”

After a bit of pleading from Delia and professional sounding suggestions from Patsy, Mrs. Busby let Patsy help Delia up to her bedroom on her own and let them be alone.

Patsy had helped Delia into her bed. She pulled the blankets around her and leaned down to lightly kiss her on the forehead. Delia muttered something. She was still mostly out of it. Patsy had read enough to know she shouldn’t be worried, but part of her still was.

She was sitting on the edge of the bed when she noticed Kate smiling at her. Patsy smirked and walked over to Delia’s record player. She picked up the record sleeve with the smiling Kate Andrews photo on it. Patsy recognized it. Vera told her it was the sleeve they used for singles or other non-record recordings Kate had done.

Patsy knew she hadn’t sent it to Delia. She had a few before, but those were all back in London. Patsy flipped to the back to see if the description was filled out. It wasn’t and there was a note taped to it.

’“Hopefully you find someone to walk through life with,” Patsy whispered to her.

“I’m sorry,” Delia said quietly from the bed.

Patsy jumped a bit and turned around. Delia was still laying in the bed how Patsy had left her.

“What are you sorry for, darling?” Patsy asked compassionately as she walked back over to the bed.

She knelt beside it to make herself eye-to-eye with Delia.

“I messed up everything,” Delia said tearfully.

“Delia, are you apologizing for having a seizure?” Patsy said with a hint of accusation.

“I haven’t had one in a few weeks. I thought I was back to normal…no normal…not normal…I want…myself…you for…” A few tears escaped Delia’s eyes as she forced them shut and jerk her had down into her pillow in frustration.

Patsy reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “Delia, you never need to apologize for this or try to be something you aren’t for me.”

“London still?” Delia whispered with her eyes still closed.

Patsy leaned into to kiss her on the check. She didn’t speak again until Delia opened her eyes.

“Yes,” Patsy replied simply. “I don’t care what has changed, how you have changed. I’ve changed too. Things are different now and they will be moving forward. But I still love you the same way I always have.”

“Yeah?” Delia said tearfully, tilting her head to Patsy.

“Yeah,” Patsy said as she kissed her. It wasn’t passionate, just comfort and understanding. It was the first time Delia could remember them kissing like that.

“I’m going to go speak to your mother. You are my someone and this walk isn’t over,” Patsy told her as she stood.

“I don’t even know who that note is from. It is just signed 'MR’,” Delia admitted.

Patsy smiled down at her. “I do. And she is waiting for us back in Cardiff.”

After a kiss goodbye and a promise from Delia that she would sleep, Patsy made her way down the stairs to speak with her mother. She was going to have to add that simple note that was weirdly giving her so much confidence to the long list of things she needed to thank Kate for.

“Miss Mount,” Delia’s mother said when Patsy turned the stairs into the kitchen. “How is Delia doing?”

“She is resting. She will be fine in a few hours,” Patsy replied.

“And rid of her delusional ideas?” Mrs. Busby asked.

It didn’t sound as mean as Patsy had expected it to be.

“She is planning to go back to London with me. That is why I came here with her,” Patsy said calming. She decided to sit at the table. With the tenseness of the room it felt like some sort of power play, but Patsy really didn’t trust herself to remain standing without shaking.

“She should be with her family, Miss Mount and her family is here not in London.”

“Her life is,” Patsy replied calmly.

“You?” she replied in disgust.

“Not just me. She had lived there for years. Her job, friends, flat is all there.”

“She doesn’t have that job anymore and she never had a flat.”

“No, she doesn’t have that job,” Patsy replied. “But, that doesn’t mean she cannot get it back one day. She doesn’t have a flat, but I still have the one we planned to live in.”

“She is still in need of medical assistance.”

It seemed like a weak excuse but Patsy decided not to treat it as such.

“I am a nurse, ma'am. Most of our friends are nurses or doctors. She will have more medical attention than she would ever receive here.”

“They will not care for her like her family will,” Mrs. Busby said.

Patsy took a depth breathe. She might be pushing too far but she felt it was important to say.

“I know it is not what you want to hear, Mrs. Busby but I love your daughter. Nobody, save for maybe you, cares more about her than I do. I also have the medical training needed to make sure nothing happens to her,” Patsy admitted wholeheartedly.

Mrs. Busby angrily looked away from Patsy and the back again.

“You know, before she went to London and was corrupted by you she used to step out with men,” she hissed.

“And women,” Patsy added. “But Delia doesn’t remember any of that. She only remembers me.”

“How do I know you are not manipulating us to seduce her away?”

Patsy was at a loss for comebacks.

“Christ sake!” Pasty heard from the bottom of the stairs.

“Delia!” Patsy and Mrs. Busby exclaimed together.

“You are supposed to be resting,” Patsy added softly.

Delia smiled at her concern. “I will later, I promise. I just had a feeling like you needed some help.” Delia turned her attention to her mother. “She is not tricking me or forcing me, Mother. Hardly anything makes sense to me or feels right, but Patsy does. I am sorry if you disagree and find my choice wrong, but I am going back to London with Patsy.”

Mrs. Busby seemed to huff in anger and disappointment. “You can’t run to me when this all falls to pieces.”

Delia nodded matter-a-factly. “I won’t need to. It won’t.”

“If you say so,” her mother stated.

Delia just nodded again. “I am going to go rest now. Come on, Patsy.”

She grabbed Patsy's hand and led her upstairs and back into her room.

“That was amazing,” Patsy told her once her bedroom door was closed.

Delia smiled and nodded but then started to collapse as her legs gave out.

“Whoa!” Patsy exclaimed as she caught her around the waist. “Back to bed with you.”

Delia nodded. She let Patsy put her back into bed again. She wasn’t even trying to go anywhere when Delia seized her arm just about the wrist.

“Lie with me,” Delia said softly.

Patsy smiled and got into the bed beside her. She put her arms around her and felt her warmth as she moved back against her. Patsy knew she wasn’t going to sleep. She was too elated by everything that had happened.

She did it. The grand romantic gesture had worked. She had been dreaming about this moment since Delia peered back at her blank-faced from a hospital bed in The London. She dreamed of getting her to remember who she was, win her back and get her back to London where she belonged.

Delia muttered something in her sleep and turned over. She squirmed for a moment and then was still again with her head on Patsy’s shoulder and her arm around her.

Patsy held her a bit tighter. It really had all came true.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patsy gets Delia home to their flat in London, reunites with Trixie and later works with Betty to keep a promise she once made to Delia.

Betty expelled the smoke from her cigarette as she leaned back against the wall in the Cardiff train station. She glanced over at Gladys who was standing beside her and looking down at the piece of paper in her hands, quietly repeating sentences over and over again to herself.

“What language is that, Princess?” Betty asked her.

“Russian,” Gladys replied without looking up.

“That ain’t your usual Russian accent,” Betty replied.

“It’s a dialec–,” Gladys cut herself off and looked up a Betty. “That information is classified.”

Betty smirked. “ ‘Course it is. Carry on, Princess.”

Gladys turned her attention back to her phrase sheet and Betty turned her gaze to Kate. She had been pacing in front of them for a while now. She kept humming the same tune to herself. She would then try to add words, either disagree with it or get frustrated and then start over. Betty had spent most of the time watching her. It was equally adorable and amusing.

Patsy told them she was coming back from Delia’s town on Sunday, either on the 10:30, 11:30 or 1 p.m. train. They had been there since 10 and it was nearly 1 and there was still no Patsy.

None of them were angry, though. They all had a role in the original grand romantic gesture that inspired this one. They understood the unpredictability of it all.

The 1 p.m. train pulled into the station. Gladys shoved her phrase sheet into her pocket. Betty threw her cigarette to the ground and stamped it out. Kate stopped in her tracks and turned to the train in silence.

Betty was glad she was behind the other two so they didn’t see her smirk at how tense they would all being, but she felt it when Patsy appeared in the doorway of the train car in front of them.

She smiled at them, then bit her lower lip to hide her excitement and stepped off the train. Delia appeared behind her, struggling with a suitcase.

Kate squealed in excitement.

“Fuck, yes!” Betty exclaimed.

Gladys just laughed at the two of them.

Patsy and Delia made their way over to them struggling with the six bags they had between them.

“So when is our train to London?” Patsy asked.

“In 30 minutes,” Gladys replied.

“You kids cut it pretty close,” Betty added.

“Sorry, we had to pack my stuff,” Delia admitted.

“Well, we are certainly glad that is the reason,” Kate answered.

“Us too,” Patsy replied. She had so much to say to Kate but she thought she should wait for a better moment.

Betty started taking bags from them before they set out for the London train.

Patsy could barely contain her excitement. She figured this would happen. Being with Delia still had a dream-like quality for Patsy. Being in Wales with her ultra-accepting cousins and mean to the point of villainy, at least how Patsy viewed it, mother made it all seem like a dream.

But with Betty and Kate and even Gladys, it started to feel like it was actually her life and actually real. She could barely anticipate what she would feel when Trixie greeted them at the London station.

Trixie stood anxiously in the London station taking another drink of her coffee. By god, she disliked coffee. But, she was tolerating it because it was helping her cope more than tea could. She couldn’t pinpoint why she was so nervous. Sure, she hadn’t seen Patsy in a few months and Delia before the accident, but they were her friends and it was silly to be nervous about seeing them.

But she had been since she received her last call from Patsy, who had been in a hotel room in Cardiff, Wales. She as heading to Delia’s mother’s house to ask permission for her to move to London with her. Trixie had no idea if the permission had been granted or who Patsy would be with. She only knew she would be on the 15:30 train back to London.

“Oh, not that face from you,” Trixie said down to Sister Mary Cynthia, who was standing beside her.

“There is no reason to be nervous, Trixie,” she replied.

Trixie huffed at her. “You know all your wisdom is somewhat off putting sometimes.”

“God grants us all with an abundance of knowledge if we have the courage to ask for it,” Sister Mary Cynthia replied.

“No, you had that before,” Trixie added with a smile.

The sister would have protested had she not started laughing.

The laugh caused a bout of nostalgia to hit Trixie from the night Cynthia told them she was considering joining then church. In the hallway outside her best friend’s room, Trixie was told be a huffy, eye-rolling Patsy in her too big flannel pajamas that finding a lad wasn’t everything.

It was the moment Trixie realized both her best friends had been keeping huge secrets from her. She was dead set on ending that trend. Patsy spilled her secret mostly on her own and Trixie was trying her hardest to not let her other best friend’s difference get in the way. They seemed to have some unspoken code about sexual issues. Trixie never fully stated and the sister seemed to always understand while pretending not to to avoid passing judgement.

But all that was far from Trixie’s mind when the trained pulled in and Patsy stepped off.

She ran at her and threw her arms around her. Patsy hugged her back and instantly broke out in laughter.

“Did you miss me, Trixie?” Patsy asked.

She pulled back but kept her hand a on her shoulders as she glared up into her face.

“You do realize all my other friends are either nuns, married ladies or Barbara?” Trixie stated.

“I’ve missed you too,” Patsy said with a smile.

Trixie snuck a quickly glance to make sure Sister Mary Cynthia was far enough behind her. “You did get your lady back, right?”

Just then, Delia stepped off the train, nearly throwing the suitcase with the broken wheel at Patsy’s feet.

“Sorry,” she told her. “The bloody thing is useless.”

Before Patsy could response, Delia locked eyes with Trixie. She stared at her in confusion and Trixie raised her eyebrows at her in question.

“I’ve met you before,” Delia stated. “Your….your…”

Delia placed a hand on Patsy’s shoulder. Patsy put her hand on top of hers and squeezed it.

“Tri…” Delia started.

Patsy nodded at her with encouragement.

“Tri-Tri…Trix…Trixie, the roommate,” Delia stated still sounding confused.

“That not feel right, sweetie?” Trixie replied.

“It does,” Delia admitted. “But I also want to say family.” She turned to Patsy. “But your family is gone.”

Patsy looked as if she might cry. The three Canadian women Trixie recognized from that concert months ago walked off the train. They seemed to side-step the tense scene.

“I acted as Patsy’s family,” Trixie answered to help Delia and ensure Patsy knew. “You called me as much. I don’t think we would have ever admitted it ourselves but you made it so easy.”

Patsy had never spoken of her family to Trixie, except for the one time it helped a case. Trixie noticed how Patsy had flinched at the mention of family just as she had the last time.

Trixie looked at Patsy with a compassionate and completely understanding smile. Patsy nearly started crying.

“Oh, you big baby,” Trixie replied in the perfect way only she could. “Come here,” she commanded.

Patsy hugged her again and this time she lowered her head until it rested on Trixie’s shoulder. Patsy had no idea how much had had truly missed Trixie until that moment. Sure, Betty and Kate made her feel accepted and confident. Delia was familiar but she still didn’t remember everything and couldn’t grasp everything the way Trixie could.

“I’ve missed you so much,” Patsy admitted.

“You better have,” Trixie said, kissing her on the cheek.

“So, am I going to see the mysterious flat?” Trixie asked as they all walked out of the station.

“Why is our flat mysterious?” Delia questioned.

“It isn’t,” Patsy replied with a glare to Trixie. “I was staying there a lot and I hadn’t told Trixie about it.”

“You could have been sleeping on park benches for all I knew,” Trixie stated.

Patsy rolled her eyes and huffed at her.

“What are you kids gonna do about furniture?” Betty asked. She and Gladys were walking behind the three of them. Kate was a bit farther back with Sister Mary Cynthia, apparently they had found something to talk about.

“We have a record player,” Delia said with a shrug.

“And about a thousand blankets,” Patsy added.

“We will just have constant dance parties and then collapse into our blanket pit,” Delia joked.

“Naturally,” Patsy added.

Trixie shook her head at them. “Well, you two certainly haven’t changed at all.”

Patsy smiled. “We will find things.”

“We could help, if you’d need it,” Gladys offered.

“Oh no, that is quite all right,” Patsy told her. “You three have already done so much for us.”

“And we want to do it ourselves,” Delia added.

“I know the feeling,” Betty stated with a nod.

Gladys smiled at her. “I could be the Lorna of this situation and just force things on them.”

“Hey,” Betty called. “Kate and I are their moms.”

“Oh, for both of us now?” Patsy shot back.

Delia raised an eyebrow at her.

“They started treating me like their child on the tour. So Vera and I started calling them my parents,” Patsy explained to her.

“Well, mother-in-laws,” Betty clarified. “We ain’t going to force anything on you guys. But just make sure, for appearances, that you get two bed. Push 'em together, but just have two.”

“Is that what you and Kate did?” Patsy asked.

Betty smiled nostalgically. “Our first house had two bedrooms. We set up both up like we used them both. But we always slept in the one that was 'mine’.”

“What did you do with the other one?” Delia asked.

“Me,” Gladys stated with a shrugged.

“This one slept there when ever she was in town,” Betty said.

Patsy stopped in front of a doorway.

Delia urgently looked up at the building. “Is this it?”

Patsy nodded as she reached into the pocket of one of her bags for the keys.

“We’ll give you guys some alone time,” Gladys said.

Betty nodded. “We’re staying at The Ritz again. And we’ll see you in that bar in three hours?”

Patsy nodded.

“I guess the sister and I should leave you two also,” Trixie stated. “But I am swinging by here before the bar so I can see it finally.”

Once they were actually alone, Patsy unlocked the door. She lead Delia up the stairs and to their front door. She unlocked that one too. Delia silently smiled up as she pushed the door open. She took a few steps into the flat and gazed around.

It didn’t look like much. All that was in it was a pile of blankets and a vase on the window sill. The counter was covered in…

“Yellow stationary,” Delia said under her breathe, because it wasn’t feeling enough like where she belonged already. She turned to Patsy and smiled. “It’s perfect.”

Patsy locked the door behind her. “For some reason, I was nervous about you not liking it.”

“No,” Delia stated. “It’s everything I imagined it to be.”

“It is barely large enough for two beds,” Patsy stated. They hadn’t thought about that originally.

“So?” Delia said with a shrugged. She walked over to Patsy and stood on her toes to kiss her, slowly and passionately. “I can do that,” she added with excitement. “Whenever I fancy.”

Patsy drew from her excitement and smiled too. “That is one of the best things about it. It was why we decided to get a place. Do you remember?”

She didn’t reply. Patsy took a step back so she could bend down and look her in the eyes.

“Delia?” She repeated. Her eyes were glossed over and her face was blank.

Patsy tried to guide her down to the blanket pile but her body was so stiff she barely moved. Halfway down she jerked, hitting Patsy in the face and causing both of them to fall the rest of the way to the ground. She quickly pushed herself away from Delia. She sat up beside her and held her nose. She pulled her hand away and looked at it. It was bleeding, she expected as much.

Delia stopped moving. That was much shorter than last time, Patsy thought to herself. Delia stirred awake and Patsy moved closer again.

She looked down at her, attempting a smile.

Delia seemed to sink into the blankets in disappointment.

Patsy shook her head. “It is all right.”

“You…hurt,” Delia stammered out sadly.

“It’s nothing,” Patsy told her softly. “I should know to be more careful.”

“I-I…too…attract-t-t…ive.”

Patsy blushed.

“R-r-right,” Delia added with a strained smile.

Patsy shook her head and sighed. “All right, I let my guard down too much,” Patsy admitted. “But you can’t fairly blame me.”

“No.”

Patsy wiped the blood from her face but then stared at her blood-covered hand.

“Sink,” Delia offered.

Patsy nodded. “I will be right back,” she said as she walked across to the flat. “Then you are resting again.”

“We?”

Patsy turned from the sink and back at Delia. “Yes, darling. We will rest again.”

“L-l-love…”

“I know, Delia. I love you too.”

Delia was almost asleep when she felt Patsy lie beside her and place her arms around her. Delia had been trying to think if anything felt more right to her then that, but her mind was at a loss.

She realized it had been what she was searching for since the moment she looked at a name written on the bottom of a piece of yellow stationary. It was the first thing that made her feel like she actually had a life before her accident.

Now, she had returned to that life, in Patsy’s arms in their flat in London.

_Two years later_

“What are you doing home already?” Patsy asked when she stepped inside the flat. She thought she heard Kate Andrews from the hallway.

Delia was frantically pacing between the opened suitcase on the bed and her wardrobe. She took a quick detour to the door to greet Patsy with a kiss.

“I mentioned to Shelagh that I hadn’t done much packing before work and she let me go home early,” Delia replied as she put more clothes into the suitcase.

Patsy laughed as she stood on the other side of the bed and started changing out of her Nonnatus uniform and into the clothes she laid out the night before.

“I nearly had to brawl with Trixie to get out the door,” Patsy added.

“Did you expect anything less?” Delia questioned.

Patsy sighed. “Well no, but I thought I would be better prepared.”

“It’s two months,” Delia stated. “She’ll be fine.”

Patsy finished buttoning her shirt and looked at her watch. “Well, she certainly will be if we don’t get moving. Our flights in less than an hour.”

“Right, right,” Delia answered frantically as she threw the stack of clothes in her hands into the suitcase and zipped it. “Let’s go.”

Patsy was about to lock the door, when Delia realized she had left the record player on.

“Come on,” Patsy nudged her once she was back in the hallway.

“Betty, come on,” Kate called from the edge of their patio.

She could barely see her at the back edge of their yard. She was helping a few others put up the tents for their annual V-E Day party.

Betty looked over at her and nodded. “One second. Almost done,” she yelled.

It was unseasonably warm for early May and the tents were needed for shade, most years it was rain. Kate figured that was why she found Betty’s shirt on a chair in the kitchen. Betty was only wearing an undershirt as she helped a handful of similarly clad men assemble the tents.

Kate forgot why she came onto the patio annoyed as she let herself take pleasure in watching Betty. She looked as strong and beautiful and commanding as she had the day they first meant. But, now there was an underlying layer of love, devotion and the knowledge that she could act on any lustful thoughts she had.

Then Shelia and Ned’s youngest daughter ran past her screaming as one of her back up singers’ sons chased her with a wooden sword. And Kate remembered they needed to be at the airport in 25 minutes.

“Riley, will you go help your father and Marco with that tent and tell Betty to get over here,” Kate said to Leon’s son, who was polishing and lining up glasses at the patio bar with Vera and Gladys.

“Sure thing, Aunt Kate,” he replied as he took off toward the tents.

“Oww, cutting it rather close aren’t you?” Vera asked as she looked up from Gladys’ wristwatch.

Kate nodded. “If we don’t get back before people start arriving can you–”

“Hold down the fort?” Vera replied with a smile. “As the better half of Moretti-Burr Entertainment, I am sure I can handle it. Miss Society Party here can help.”

“Hey!” Gladys replied in fake offense. “How does Kate not fall into that category?”

“She ain’t no princess, Princess,” Betty shot back as she run up to them. “She’s a superstar.”

Gladys rolled her eyes.

“I wouldn’t say superstar,” Kate admitted as she handed Betty her shirt.

“Thank you,” she said as she whipped it around her shoulders and started buttoning it. “And I think most the people who are going be here will disagree, including the two we need to get from the airport. So, let’s go.”

Kate let Betty pull her through the gate and around their house to the driveway. Betty opened the door to the brand new convertible corvette for Kate. She slide into the passenger seat and Betty hoped over the door into the driver’s seat.

“Is it growing on you at all?” Kate asked as Betty was pulling out of the driveway.

She shrugged. “Not really.”

Getting the car hadn’t been their idea. They still took the streetcar everywhere until Marco recently decided they needed a shiny, new car and bought them one for their anniversary.

“I like the Packard better,” Kate stated.

Betty looked over at her and smiled. “Me too.” They had held onto Gladys’ 1942 Packard, which one of the best mechanics in Toronto worked on regularly. They drove it most of the time, since Gladys didn’t get much of a chance to anymore.

“London kids!” Betty nearly yelled as she saw Patsy and Delia walk through the gate.

Delia blushed in embarrassment. Patsy ran the last few steps and hugged Betty.

“Good to see you again, Red,” she said.

“You too, Betty,” Patsy said with a smile.

“And we are going to need to talk,” Betty whispered as she pulled away.

Patsy nodded. Delia glanced at them quizzically. Kate noticed and hugged her to distract her. It worked. Delia nearly fainted from excitement.

The four of them had been writing over the two years since Kate Andrews’ last European tour ended. It took Delia a while but she had regained her Kate Andrews super fan status.

Which was probably why when they got back to the house, Kate was so easily able to guide her into the backyard as Betty and Pasty carried their bags into one of the guest rooms.

“So, what did you end up gettin’?” Betty asked excitedly as she propped Delia’s suitcase up against the wall.

Patsy laid her suitcase on the floor beside the bed. She smiled as Betty nearly jumped over.

Patsy pulled two velvet covered boxes out of her suitcase. She sat on the bed and stared down at the two boxes. It was the first time she was showing anyone. It made sense it was to the person who finally gave her enough confidence to buy them.

“I got a bracelet for her and a necklace for myself,” Patsy said meekly as if she needed reassurance.

Betty had picked up on that from her letters and was waiting to give it in person. “Yeah?” she added excitedly.

“She likes bracelets, but I can’t really wear one all the time because of my job, so I figured a necklace would be best.”

Betty nodded. “Well can I see 'em, Red?”

Patsy nervously nodded and opened the boxes and showed them to Betty.

She smiled widely and laughed at bit. It was exactly what she expected and so similar to what she and Kate had first done. They were simple; both plain gold with “forever and always” inscribed on the backs. The necklace was in the shape of a heart.

“I’m proud of you, kid,” Betty admitted sincerely.

Patsy blushed.

Betty smiled nearly broke into a laugh.

Patsy sighed. “I know,” she replied. “I ain’t changed a bit,” she said, doing her best impression of Betty.

She did laugh that time. “You got to do that for Kate later.”

Betty heard the beginning of “O Canada” on the piano outside. She walked over to the opened window, which had a view of the backyard. Patsy followed and stood beside her.

Leon was playing the piano in the stage in the center of the yard and Kate was at the microphone poised to start singing.

“So, what is this party again?” Patsy asked. She had been told it was an annual celebration they had but there were two stages and almost 200 people in the backyard and she could hear more inside below them.

“It’s for V-E Day,” Betty said simply staring out the window at Kate.

Patsy kept her eyes on Kate. She learned on the last tour with them that no matter where Betty was in the crowd Kate always seemed to find her. Before Betty started to explain further, Kate locked eyes with her and smiled. Patsy shook her head in amazement.

“It’s turned into a charity event and sort of battle of the bands over the years,” Betty stated. “We don’t charge admission but we ask for donations. We invite every up and coming local band we know and have them perform. Guest vote on them with money and whichever raises the most gets a recording session with Moretti-Burr Entertainment. Kate will usually collaborates on one song too. We donate all the proceeds: 50 percent to WWII vet organizations, 40 to a different one each year and 10 to a homosexual rights group. But, we are sorta hush-hush on the last one.”

Patsy nodded understandingly. “What is the different one this year?” she asked Betty, but she was still gazing out the window for she had spotted Delia by the stage.

Betty was silent and Patsy peered over to see that she was now blushing.

“Uh, head injury research,” she said slowly, glancing at the floor then up at Patsy.

Patsy was starting to tear up.

“Damnit, Red,” Betty stated looking away from her, also starting to tear up.

“Sorry,” Patsy said, almost laughing at her as she looked away too.

Betty took a few forceful breathes and calmed herself. “How’s she been doin’?”

Patsy nodded, genuinely pleased. “Good,” she said. “She started to remember a lot more and she’s only had one seizure in the last three months.”

“Was she able to get her nursing job with you back?” Betty asked.

Patsy shock her head. “We never worked together. She used to be on the ambulance squad, when I was working at The London and as a district nurse. But, she couldn’t get that back.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine, actually,” Patsy admitted. They had both been disappointed at first, then adjusted. “These married friends of ours run a doctor’s office together. They were more than eager to help us. Shelagh made herself the offices’ nurse so Delia could be the secretary. She has been slowly transitioning the position to medical secretary as Delia finishes her training.”

“So she got enough training for these to be truthful?” Betty asked as she handed her two laminated passes.

One had her name on it and the other had Delia’s. They both had “Kate Andrews Tour Member” across the top and “official medic” under their names.

“She does,” Patsy said with a smile.

“Good,” Betty said. “Now, we wasted enough time up here. Time to get down there.”

Patsy took a deep breathe. “Yes, all right.” She took the necklace out of its box and put it in her left pocket. She put the velvet box containing the bracelet in her right and followed Betty down the stairs and out onto the patio.

Betty seemed like she was trying to make her way to the stage with Patsy but kept getting greeted by different people. Patsy ended up feeling lost in the sea of people.

“Martini?” Gladys asked with a wide smile as she held on in front of Patsy.

“Why yes, thank you,” Patsy said as she took it.

Gladys moved one of the two other Martinis from her right hand to her left. She took a sip from one and held up the other.

“This one is for your lady, let’s go find her shall we?” Gladys said as she started into the crowd. She had raised her eyebrows in a, more than usual, knowing fashion.

Patsy followed her. “Did Betty tell you, too?”

Gladys nodded. “Just the basics, darling. She told me to tell you the pond is down that path to the left.”

Patsy nodded. Part of her was glad that Betty had enlisted others to make sure the plan went smoothly. But is also made Patsy feel even guiltier for not telling more people at home. She had briefly told Trixie about a possible next step in their relationship. But, she didn’t seem to truly understand. Patsy had sent a letter to Delia’s cousin, Howell. After the falling out with Delia’s mother they had decided he would act as Delia’s family. Patsy didn’t ask for his permission or anything. She just told him and he wished them good luck.

They reached Delia at the foot of the stage. Gladys handed her her drink.

Delia held it up and clanked it with Patsy and Gladys’. The dancing had stalled for a moment, but when drummer from the newest band finished her solo and the singer started going again, everyone started dancing and Delia made her way over to Patsy. Delia seemed to be taking amusement in how much Patsy enjoying her dancing that close to her.

“Well, you two sure have matured,” Kate said as she slide in beside them.

Patsy just laughed. It was the kind of thing she had grown accustomed to from Kate and Betty. Delia blushed slightly.

“Oh don’t embarrass them, Kate,” Gladys shot at her.

“Like ya never did stuff like that to us,” Betty added as she appeared beside Kate. They then kissed each other simply as a greeting.

Delia and Patsy stared at them wide-eyed. Patsy always found it ridiculous that they didn’t like being called heroes.

“You two took far too long to get together. I was more than entitled to nudge you along,” Gladys stated.

Kate laughed nostalgically at Betty. “Remember those Valentine’s Day cards?”

Betty went red with laughter. “Yeah, yours had a sticker of a blonde lady on it.”

Kate nodded almost in the same state. “And yours had all those Corinthians quotes.”

Betty bent over in laughter.

“Well it worked, eventually,” Gladys said in her defense.

“Relax, Princess. We are makin’ fun of ourselves more than you,” Betty replied.

In the midst of their nostalgia, Patsy grasped Delia’s hand, smiled at her and lead her down the stone path to the pond.

“Where are you taking me, Pats?” she asked playfully.

“Somewhere we can be alone,” Patsy replied.

“I thought our flat was for being alone and this tour was to be with others?” Delia questioned.

Patsy nodded. “Yes, darling. But the tour doesn’t start for another four days. Right now, I want us to be alone, just you and me so I can ask you something.”

“Okay,” Delia answered slowly sounding nervous.

Patsy smiled down at her. She was silent for a moment and looked ahead down the path.

“We are almost to the spot,” Patsy told her.

“What spot?” Delia asked. She then turned her attention to small pond, shimmering beautifully in the bright May sun. It was so lovely, she turned and looked up to share the moment with Patsy but she didn’t find her.

Then she looked down.

“Oh god, oh god,” Delia exclaimed as she saw Patsy down on one knee in front of her. She was awkwardly holding a velvet box in her hands.

She closed her eyes, took a few deep breathes. She then glanced up at Delia for a second but quickly directed her eyes back to the ground. Delia reached out and titled Patsy’s head up until they made eye contract.

Delia smiled at her lovingly and encouragingly. Then she nodded.

“Delia,” Patsy began. “You once told me you wanted to marry me. Do you remember?”

Delia started to tear up. The memory had recently returned to her and she nearly burst into tears at breakfast. She nodded.

“I told you I would find a way for us to be together. I did not think it would take this long and I could have never predicted that it would have played out this way,” Patsy tearfully admitted. “But, I love that it has. That despite everything, you came back to me. We found each other again.”

Delia had to take a few deep breathes. Patsy waited.

“I know we can’t be together like how you want or I want or how we should be. But for how we can, will be with me Delia Gwendoyln Busby forever and always?” Patsy anxiously asked as she opened the box revealing the simply gold bracelet.

Delia nodded as she started to cry. “Of course, you fool. Stand up so I can kiss you.”

Patsy obeyed. She stood at full height, but Delia instantly pulled her down until their lips meet. Patsy was sucked into the passion of her girlfriend’s kiss. Girlfriend didn’t seem like the right word anymore. She wanted to use soulmate or wife, she would have to ask Delia, when they were less concerned about kissing each other.

Delia pulled away first, only because she needed to breathe. Patsy fastens the bracelet on her wrist.

“And what about you?” Delia whispered.

Patsy smiled as she pulled the necklace from her pocket. She started to put it on but Delia slowly stole it from her hands.

“No, no,” Delia protested. “Let me.”

Patsy smirked at her, turned around and pulled her hair to one side.

“Um,” Delia said as she tapped her in the middle of her back. Patsy laughed and crouched down so Delia could put the necklace on her.

Patsy turned around to face her again. They were both drawn to each other uncontrollably again and kissed passionately. Delia started running her hands along every inch of Patsy’s skin that she could reach. Unlike the other times, Patsy let her. For she no longer felt guilty or dirty or sinful. She only felt in love and there was nothing wrong with that.

“I love you,” Delia moaned softly as she pulled away from Patsy.

Delia was driving her mind insane and Patsy could have stayed beside that pond for hours, but she remembered their was a reward for getting back to the party by a certain time.

“Come on,” Patsy said to Delia as she held out her hand and started leading her down the trail.

Patsy and Delia started to hear applause coming from the backyard, followed by an excited cheer.

“Thank you, thank you everyone,” Patsy and Delia heard Kate Andrews say over the microphone.

They both thought she might start singing and started to hurry back.

“Thank you for attending our 17th annual V-E Day celebration and for supporting the best in up and coming Toronto musicians. But I am going to have to take over for this next song,” Kate said.

She was cut off by applause again. Patsy and Delia reached the edge of the backyard and continued hand-in-hand to where they had last been with Betty and Gladys.

“I would like to dedicate this songs to two friends of mine who traveled all the way for London…”

Kate made eye contact with Patsy. Patsy smiled pleased with herself and gave Kate a thumbs up. She jumped a bit and excited squealed.

“Yes!” Patsy heard someone, she assumed Betty, cheer a few feet away.

“…and just reaffirmed their commitment to each other,” Kate said excited. “I would like to dedicate 'Please Remember Me’ to the London kids.”

Leon started on the piano and Kate started to sing. Patsy could barely take in the first few notes before Betty went slamming into her and causing her to stumble backwards into Delia.

Betty hugged her tightly and Patsy returned the gesture.

“Good job, kid,” she said into her ear.

“Thank you,” Patsy told her. “For everything.”

“Ain’t a big deal,” Betty stated. Patsy looked as if she was about to protest. “No arguing. This song is for you two,” she pushed them closer to the stage. “Go dance.”

Patsy stumbled closer to the stage. Delia quickly appeared in front of her and placed one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders. They dance around a few times and then Delia pulled her girlfriend, wife maybe, closer so from their hips up they were touching everywhere they could.

_Oh lover please remember me_  
When I go away  
I’ll keep you right here in my heart  
Think of you everyday  
I want to hold you close  
Keep you company  
Oh lover please remember me 

“Thank you,” Delia said quietly as they danced at the foot of the stage in Betty and Kate’s background amid 100s of people.

“For what, darling?” Patsy asked.

“Not giving up of me,” Delia replied.

Patsy smiled early down at her. “Of course, Delia. Thank you for giving me a chance even when you didn’t remember me.”

Delia’s eyes filled with happiness. “I’m not sure if I ever truly forgot you. I knew there was something different about you from the moment I first saw you in my hospital room. Then you wrote me and rescued me and protected me and…proposed to me.”

“I never thought you did,” Patsy said, with a tearful, loving smile.

“I guess it was too wonderful to fully forget,” Delia said as she reached up to kiss Patsy. It was simple, like how they kissed when they got home at night or how a married couple would. Delia smiled to herself, she figured that was them now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. My Bomb Girls fic Things Are Different Now acts as a prequel to the Bomb Girls side of this, in case you're interested.


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